PROVINCETOWN — JJ Blake, Andrew Shope, and Kevin Woznac were biking down MacMillan Wharf on Aug. 19 to go pier jumping before their daily lessons at West End Racing Children’s Community Sailing when they saw an unusual splash just beyond a docked dinghy at the far end of the pier.
“At first I thought it was a seal,” said Kevin, who is 12. Then two hands shot up out of the water, followed by the bobbing head of a man clearly in distress. The three boys ditched their bikes and ran to the man, who they said was having trouble staying above water.
Andrew, 13, and JJ, 10, grabbed hold of the man’s arms and heaved him as far out of the water as they could. But the side of the dock was too high, and the man, 81, was having trouble getting his footing. Kevin hopped on his bike and pedaled as fast as he could to the harbormaster’s office, where he asked Assistant Harbormaster Jesse Boyd and pier traffic enforcement agent John DeMatteis for help.
DeMatteis and Boyd rushed to the spot where JJ and Andrew were still holding the man above water. Boyd grasped the man below his shoulders, and together they pulled him safely to shore. The emergency had lasted only 10 or 15 minutes, the young men said. Aside from some minor scrapes, the man was OK, those involved in the rescue said.
“He didn’t need an ambulance, no helicopters,” DeMatteis said. “He just got in his truck and left.”
The man who was rescued did not respond to an inquiry from the Independent.
“It’s all a bit of a haze,” Andrew said. “We were there for a while trying to hold him up. I didn’t know if we were going to be able to.”
“I believed in you and JJ,” Kevin said to Andrew. The two were back at the West End Racing clubhouse the next day. They said they knew what to do when they saw the man struggling because of what they have learned at the sailing program, which teaches kids ages 8 to 14 the water safety skills needed to become sailors.
Their ability to help was “in big measure due to the West End Sailing Club and the skills they learned there,” said Richard Woznac, Kevin’s father. Susan Avellar, director of the children’s sailing program, said that through drills like the skipper’s test, where the students are taught to right a capsized boat and fetch overboard items from the water, they became prepared lifesavers.
“They are aware of good safety habits in and out of the water,” Avellar said. “That’s why we are here. They learn how to take care of each other.”
Andrew is also a Boy Scout, so he’s received some additional first-aid training there, he said. Once the man was safe on land, Andrew administered care from a first-aid kit he carries around with him. “I tried to give him one of those silver blankets to warm him up,” said Andrew. “He didn’t need it.
“I knew not to let him sink, make sure he didn’t exert himself, and keep him calm,” Andrew said of what he learned as a Boy Scout. But a lot of it just came from instinct, Kevin added. “It’s just common sense,” he said.
DeMatteis recognized the boys’ bravery in acting quickly. “These three individuals acted more like adults than most of the adults I deal with on the pier,” he said. “They acted very responsibly.”
DeMatteis noted that the man they had helped appeared to be scraped up from his fall and clearly was unable to make it out of the water by himself. He said that the boys may have saved a life that day.
When the Independent met with Kevin and Andrew in the West End the next day, they appeared unshaken by what had happened.
“I got six or eight texts saying, ‘You’re my hero’ from my grandmother,” said Kevin.
