BELTON, SC — There’s a lot that goes into being a Girl Scout, like knowing the Girl Scout Honor, and crossing over from Daisy to Brownie.
Girl Scouts even get badges for taking courses and lessons in things like first aid, WHNS reported. But there’s one Belton Girl Scout that took her Girl Scout skills to a whole other level, when she rescued a 5-year-old boy from a pool in Michigan.
“He had slipped, and gone under water and I had swam over there towards him,” said Tiffany Brown. When Tiffany was just 9-years-old, she said last summer when she was in Michigan for a family member’s funeral, her 5-year-old cousin started drowning and she pulled him to the surface and out of the water.
“I’d been taught how to swim by my grandmother and my mom and my dad,” said Brown. But Tiffany’s grandmother who is also her troop leader, and her parents said they never taught her how to save someone.
“Tiffany has always been very motherly and nurturing so it did not surprise me that she did something like that,” said Julie Brown, Tiffany’s mother.
Her father, who is also in the business of helping others as a police officer, said he’s glad she has taken the values he and his wife have worked so hard to teach her.
“To know that she could be so selfless and not think about herself and put others before her, it’s something we try to teach her at home and you know it’s what I think everybody needs to instill in their kids,” said TJ Brown, Tiffany’s dad.
Because of her courageous efforts to save the life of another, she was awarded a medal of honor. Her troop leader said although the Girl Scouts haven’t yet earned their life saving badge, she’s glad to see the values they teach them, is playing a role in their daily lives.
“It’s gratifying to know that maybe I thought they weren’t listening but really they were because they’ve grasped… all the girls have grasped more than what I thought they actually learned.”
For now, that shiny new metal sits above Tiffany’s heart, a heart that’s just 10-years-old, and already devoted to helping others.
