Heroic effort earns Lifesaving Badge nomination

Travis Fleis, 10, of Rogers City has been nominated to receive one of the highest honors a young man can receive in the Boy Scouts, after saving a seven-year-old from drowning in an icy pond in the Hawks area. Fleis, a fourth grader at St. Ignatius, could earn the Lifesaving Badge for his heroic deed last December. Fleis, along with a friend of his, was playing near a pond. They were throwing snowballs at each other, and when the thrill of that ran out, they decided to poke holes in the ice of the pond.

This was around the same weekend when authorities were telling people to stay off ice because of the unstable conditions. After spending quite a bit of time testing the strength of the ice near shore, the seven-year-old threw his stick out toward the center of the pond. The boy started out, as if he were going to retrieve it.

?NO…I?LL get it for you, because I still have my stick,? Travis said he told his friend. ?He didn?t listen to me and fell through the ice.? Fleis said his ?eyes popped out of his head,? when the ice gave way. The cries for help sent Travis into action, and without thought of danger to himself, he cautiously ventured out to attempt to pull him out.

There was no one around to assist in the rescue because the closest adult was out of hearing distance. Travis slid up to the flailing victim, locked onto his hands and attempted to pull him to safety.

?HE WAS obviously bigger, maybe 25 more pounds than me. I locked my feet like you would stop with ice skates,? said Fleis, pointing his feet inward, and reenacting how his fingers were intertwined with his friend?s. However, the boy in the water was pulling Travis closer and closer to the water, because Travis was lighter and slipping along the ice.

Travis then felt he had to do something more to prevent himself from sliding in. He sat down on the ice, extended his feet toward the victim, and latched onto the boy again.

AS TRAVIS started pulling on him, the victim was able to assist Travis by pushing down on the ice, and lifting himself out of the frigid water. ?They figured that if he had gone for help, rather than pulled him out, it would have been way too late,? said Jim Fleis, Travis?s father.

?I just knew what to do, so I did it,? said Travis. The victim was taken home, which was still an eighth of a mile away, where he took a hot bath. It?s the type of incident that can put quite a scare into a parent. ?One of the first things he told me was when he fir

st latched on to his hand, he started pulling him into the water because he was bigger than him,? said Jim, who recalled the ?nights I didn?t sleep after he told me the story.?

BOTH TRAVIS? father and mother are proud of the quick actions of their son, who was nine when it happened. ?I?m just thankful both boys were alive, safe and sound,? said mother Dorie Fleis. ?I?m very proud of him,? said Jim. ?I think he reacted quickly, and I think he acted smartly.? ?It just runs a shiver up your spine when you hear the story. Then you go to the worst scenario, which would have been, both of them would have died.?

This story had a happy ending because nobody was hurt, because the ice didn?t give way underneath Travis, and because the 10-year-old didn?t panic and run to the house, which would have left the victim in the water for a long time.