Scouts Honored For Heroism Five Receive Awards For Rescuing Canoeists

‘Be prepared” has new meaning for Boy Scout leader Al Ostrom.

Ostrom, 46, saved the lives of his son and another scout from Troop 494 last summer while on a canoeing trip.

Friday night, he received the scouts’ Heroism Award at a ceremony at the Valley Elks Lodge.

“It’s an honor,” says Ostrom, a custodian for Skyview Elementary. “But if I had a choice between an award and my boy, I’d choose my boy.”

Four others received the scouts’ Medal of Merit: Adult leader Donald Cress, a Foothills resident who works at Yoke’s Pac ‘n Save in Airway Heights; and scouts Kristopher Cress, Jake Walker and Joshua Wendt, all 14-year-old freshmen at East Valley High School.

The four were honored for helping save the lives of Ostrom, his son, and another scout.

Ostrom helped lead a canoe trip with several other scouts last summer.

A fallen tree across the Coeur d’Alene River forced Ostrom and the two boys to abandon their canoe midriver.

Grabbing the two boys with his free hands, Ostrom swam underwater 30 feet in the rushing river to a bank.

From there, Donald Cress was able to rescue Ostrom and the two scouts.

“(Ostrom) saved two lives at risk to himself, and that’s commendable, especially with an aquatic situation that carries such a risk with it,” said Steve Twiggs, head of the Spokane Boy Scouts lifesaving committee.

Ostrom was a lifeguard in college and took the Boy Scouts lifesaving course in 1995.

He says those skills helped him keep his cool and formulate a quick plan of action to save the boys.

Twiggs recommended to the national Boy Scouts court that the adult leaders and young men receive the awards.

About 12 medals of merit are awarded each year in the Spokane area.

There are about 12,000 scouts and 5,000 volunteer leaders in Spokane.

, DataTimes