A Madison County teen is being hailed as a hero after rescuing a struggling swimmer this summer.
Gavin Dunnivan served as a junior counselor for the Hoover Ridge Summer Camp, a program that offers daytime summer enrichment for children in kindergarten through seventh grade over nine weeks in June and July. Dunnivan was a member of the camp’s first group when he was in first grade and continued until aging out. Children in eighth and ninth grades are eligible to participate as junior counselors, assisting group leaders with younger children and Dunnivan continued his camp involvement as such.
According to Madison Parks and Recreation’s Recreation Coordinator Lindsay Von Herbulis, campers were on a hike and had stopped at a large swimming hole when one child ventured into an area where he could no longer touch the bottom, going underwater. Dunnivan noticed the child was in trouble, grabbed him and took him back to the beach area.
“He was paying attention, knew the children around him, was aware of his surroundings and when something changed, he recognized it and took action,” Von Herbulis said. “There are so many ways the situation could have ended differently had Gavin not been where he was, when he was and paying attention. He was present when he needed to be and his presence made a difference.”
The Madison County School Board honored Dunnivan with a certificate of recognition for his actions. School board Mitch Dickey, who learned of Dunnivan’s save and brought it to the attention of the board, said character counts as much as trophies and grades.
“This kind of character counts, maybe more than anything on a report card or scoreboard,” he said.
Dickey said Dunnivan acted, not to receive praise or recognition, but because a child needed help and he was ready to give it.
“Our job tonight is simply to make sure he knows we heard about it and that it mattered,” Dickey said.
