Student Tabbed As HeroEven though she will only turn 12 years old Thursday, Cheyanne Lamb is being credited with saving the life of a 9-year-old boy Saturday.
At about 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Center Lake, Lamb said, she, a couple of her cousins and some friends were sitting by the pier waiting for another cousin to get out of a wrestling match at the park pavilion.A 15-year-old boy started yelling at a 9-year-old boy, threatening him. The 9-year-old was playing around, squirting the 15-year-old boy with a water gun. That irritated the older boy more, Lamb said. He picked the 9-year-old child up and threw him off the pier into the lake. It was approximately between the first and second ladder.
The child started going under, gasping for air. "He was just trying to stay up," Lamb said.
Lifeguards were not on duty.
"I flew into the water and grabbed him, and pulled him to the pier," Lamb said. At the pier, her friend, Raechel Bell, helped pull the child up.
"He was still trying to catch his breath and get air," Lamb said.
They took the child to his parents, but did not call emergency services, Lamb said. The older boy ran off. The 9-year-old was eventually taken home.
"His parents said they appreciated my help and stuff like that," Lamb said.
She did not hesitate to act when she saw the boy was not able to swim. "It happened so fast. All I was thinking at the time was to get him safe," she said.
She said she isn't a really good swimmer.
Lamb, a sixth-grader at Harrison Elementary School, was recognized at Tuesday's award ceremony at the school. When Principal Randy Polston told the students, staff and parents present what Lamb did, they all gave her a standing ovation. She said she was embarrassed. Polston said Lamb was modest about the whole ordeal. She didn't even tell anyone at the school about Saturday's event, someone else called in to the school and let them know what Lamb had done.
"What she did was fantastic," Polston said, adding that he was proud of her.
