On a Monday afternoon, the kids fell through the ice as they were standing on a frozen pond at Collingdale Park near Jackson and Hibberd Avenues. Academy Park High student Anthony Alexander, 16, saw the children and sprinted toward the ice to try to save them. He grabbed a branch and stepped onto the ice.
“They were like, ‘Help me. Help me. We’re going to die.’ I was like, ‘Nah, you’re not going to die,” Alexander said. “So I jumped in and grabbed a stick and pulled one little kid out and the other girl was close enough for me to reach her so I pulled her in too.”
He ventured onto the ice he started to fall through. “I was shocked. That’s how cold it was. My body went into shock,” Alexander said.
As Alexander was saving the children, there were police officers on their way but they unluckily collided with another squad car that was parked on the street they turned onto. Thankfully, nobody was hurt.
Alexander received assistance from another officer who had just arrived and proceeded to help with the rescue.
All of the kids were taken to a local hospital to make they were okay. Alexander got back on his bicycle and went back to riding around in the park, knowing that three children are still alive in large part because of his bravery.
