Quick-thinking Boy Scout honored for saving kid from raging waters

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Boy Scouts promise on their honor to do their duty and an Atlanta scout did just that when he saved a 12-year-old from drowning in rushing water last summer. Now he’s being honored for it.

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Zachary Bryant, of Boy Scout Troop 213, chartered out of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, was hailed as a hero and honored by the Atlanta City Council on Monday for pulling a boy from another troop from the raging Nantahala River in North Carolina in late July during a summer whitewater rafting trip, WSB-TV reports.

Council member @MattWestmoreland honored @DruidHillsHigh student/@ebenezer_atl Boy Scout Zachary Bryant. Bryant rescued a 12 yr old fellow scout from drowning during a whitewater rafting activity. Bryant thanked his parents for being great mentors and the Council for the honor. pic.twitter.com/DOkcrxqGyY

— Atlanta City Council (@atlcouncil) February 18, 2019

“I knew I just had to help,” Bryant said about his brave act.

But Bryant, a student at Druid Hills High School gives all the honor to the Lord.

“I gave all the glory to God in this situation,” Bryant said. “I was able to reach out with my left hand and pull him into the boat.”

Bryant and an Eagle Scout who was with him worked together to scoop up the drowning troop member.

“Pulling him up with one hand. I mean, that’s just the strength of God,” Bryant said.

“It was an experience that I think every parent would have just been humbled by,” Bryant’s mother said.

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The Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock, of Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist church where Bryant’s troop is chartered, also applauded the scouts for their heroism.

“They are young men of faith, and they have deep compassion and empathy for others and they took all that, with a dose of courage, and they saved somebody’s life,” Warnock told reporters.