Lifeguards praised for dramatic rescue on Bolivar Pond

By Jay Turner

Two Canton town pool lifeguards and a current Canton Dolphins swim coach are being hailed as heroes for their actions in rescuing a stranded kayaker in Bolivar Pond last Friday.

The three rescuers — Rebecca Gerrior, Javier Ferstler and Christine Devin — reportedly all sprang into action and swam into the murky waters of the adjacent pond to assist the man and help him get back to shore safely.

Canton lifeguards Javier Ferstler and Rebecca Gerrior

“These were lifesaving actions by three extremely capable, most professional young adults,” remarked one commenter on the Everything Canton Facebook group. “Amazing, heroic people,” noted another.

While not specifically trained for open water rescue, both Gerrior and Ferstler said they acted on instinct and drew on their general water safety knowledge and experience as swimmers to reach the man quickly and provide appropriate support.

“We were just about to go teach swim lessons and we heard of a man [in distress] in the pond,” recalled Ferstler. “We reacted quickly and did what we had to do to save him.”

“When someone yelled my name that someone was in the pond I just kind of dropped everything and ran,” said Gerrior. “In the moment it was pure instinct and I wasn’t really thinking about it.”

Gerrior estimated that the man, who had flipped his kayak and was in the water in heavy fishing gear, was approximately 100 yards from shore and it took a “good two minutes” to reach him. Both she and Ferstler had brought rescue tubes and they used them to help pull the man back to the beach.

Meanwhile, Devin, herself a former head lifeguard with decades of swimming experience, went straight for the water after being notified by witnesses and she was able to retrieve the kayak and drag it back to shore while Gerrior and Ferstler helped the man onto a rescue tube.

The whole incident happened in front of dozens of onlookers, who congratulated the rescuers once they were back on dry land.

“People were coming up to me and calling me a hero and that I had saved a person’s life,” said Gerrior. “In my eyes it was kind of like another day at work and I was doing my job, even though it’s always at the pool and never in open water. I am proud of myself, but I’m also very grateful for my coworkers and their help and just everyone’s teamwork that we were able to pull it off.”

Ferstler said he too was proud of how they responded and most of all was happy to be able to help the man, who was uninjured and full of gratitude for the people who came to his rescue. “I’m really happy we saved a life and were able to do what we were trained for,” said Ferstler. “I feel like lifeguards get a bad reputation because people think we just sit around all day and get tan, but it just goes to show how alert you have to be. Anything can happen at any given minute.”

Sandy Hart, longtime coach of the Canton Dolphins, said the families of all three rescuers should be proud of their actions on that morning as well as for their “years of promoting swimming and water safety.” Hart, who has worked with and coached all three individuals, said it was noteworthy how they all jumped in to an unfamiliar body of water and swam with purpose and “without hesitation.”

Liz Francis, director of the Canton Parks & Recreation Department, also raved about the actions of the three rescuers. Commenting on Gerrior and Ferstler in particular, who are both employed by Parks & Recreation and are both recent CHS graduates, Francis said the department as a whole are “extremely proud” of their actions.

“Although the Parks & Recreation lifeguards at the Bolivar Pool do not patrol the pond,” she said, “when they were alerted that there was a person in distress, they left their posts at the pool to swim out in the pond and perform the lifesaving procedures they had been trained to do without any hesitation.”

Share This Post

Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=75920