On Monday, Sept. 29, 2014, the Jamesville Fire Department honored two Jamesville-DeWitt Middle School students—11-year-old Boy Scout Ari Tzetzis and his 13-year-old friend Leif Rosenholm—for their heroic actions, which saved their 16-year-old neighbor from drowning.

Their neighbor suffered a seizure and fell into his pool while he was cleaning it. Tzetzis and Rosenholm heard screams from next door. When they arrived at the home, they saw their neighbor at the bottom of the pool. He was unconscious. “I was really scared for the person at the bottom of the pool,” said Tzetzis. “I wanted to do something to help. I dove in and started to pull him up, and then Leif jumped in and helped me. We got him out of the pool and on the ground, and in a few seconds he started breathing.”

Because of their quick action, the young man has fully recovered. “The boys just jumped in the pool. They weren’t afraid. They just acted to help someone,” said Kevin Carver of the Jamesville Fire Department. “There probably would not have been as good an outcome if they didn’t do what they did.”

The Jamesville Fire Department awarded plaques to Tzetzis, a member of the Boy Scouts of America’s Longhouse Council Troop 22 chartered to the Dewitt Community Church in Dewitt, New York, and former troop member Rosenholm, commending them for their heroic actions.