Four-year-old Stella Blouin from Sacramento, California was visiting their home with her father and his girlfriend. This was Stella’s first visit with her Texas family. Nicholas (age 11) and Dillon (age 9) had never met Stella and didn’t know anything about her except that she was their cousin.
The family gathering was bittersweet. Family had come together from Texas, Illinois, and California to celebrate the life of Gerald Mulvihill, who was Dillon’s and Nicholas’ great-grandfather. Kari Federico, the boys’ mother, had invited the family to gather at her new home.
Even though it was October, the Texas 80-degree weather was warm enough for Dillon and Nicholas to swim in the backyard pool.
Mary Sanchez, the boys’ grandmother, lives with the family and homeschools the boys. She is a retired teacher and school principal. According to Mary, “This was the first time we had several people at the house. There were about 30-40 people here. We just got this house right before my dad had died.”
Kari bought the house because it had a pool, and the boys are such great swimmers. They took swimming lessons at the YMCA when they were five or six. Swimming was so natural to them that it never occurred to either of the boys that maybe Stella shouldn’t be on the float.
“My daughter Kari and others were in the kitchen preparing food for everyone. I was sitting outside with another group of adults,” Mary said.
Nicholas remembers the event like this: “That night, I had a baseball game, and I was sitting in a chair beside the pool in my uniform. It was about two hours before the game, so I decided to change and go swim. I saw Stella on a blue float when I went in the house. But when I came back, she was in the middle of the pool. She was on her stomach floating with her head in the water.
I thought maybe she was just playing around or something. That’s why I told Dillon to bring her over to the shallow end just to be sure. Dillon pulled her over from the middle of the pool to the side. I went over to the shallow end where she was, but when I didn’t see her moving, I picked her up out of the water. She started spitting out water. She was all blue and everything.
But after she started spitting out water, I didn’t know what to do, so I just held her out of the water and let her breathe. Then she started screaming and the adults came over. They dried her off and put her in a blanket. She fell asleep. Someone called 911, and the firefighters came over and checked her out for about 20 minutes.”
Mary Sanchez remembered, “It was her screams that got our attention. None of us adults saw what happened, because a built-in serving counter blocked the view of the pool to anyone sitting on the patio.
My sister is a nurse, so she checked her out, but when she saw Stella’s lips were still blue and it wasn’t going away, she told us to call the EMTs. They got here within minutes. They checked Stella out and gave her oxygen.
Stella’s dad asked her what happened, and she said, “I was floating on the blue float, and then I just slipped, and I went under the water. I kept trying to come out of the water, but I couldn’t, so I fell asleep.”
The boys agree they would do the same thing again if they had to, but Nicholas added. “Yeah, once I got her out of the water, I’d get an adult.”
Members of American Legion Auxiliary, Unit 305, nominated the boys for the Youth Hero Awards. The unit serves The Woodlands, Spring, and Conroe. Members began the process. First, they completed the formal paperwork and sent it to the Texas State Department of ALA in Austin for consideration. The state office then forwarded the application to the national headquarters, who approved the award and sent the certificate and medals.
Throughout the process, Dillion and Nicholas were unaware of any of the activities until the day they were to receive the award. The American Auxiliary presented the award to Nicholas and Dillon at their May meeting at Saints Simon and Jude Catholic Church in The Woodlands, where they meet the third Thursday of the month.
Even after receiving the recognition, the boys don’t consider themselves heroes. Their days are spent being homeschooled by their grandmother, Mary Sanchez. Nicholas said “The advantage to that is we get breaks in the middle of the school day. We get off early.”
Dillon points out that, “One drawback to being homeschooled is that we’re not around too many other kids.” They agree that science is their favorite subject. Math is their least favorite, closely followed by history or English.
Baseball is important to the whole family. Clues to the family’s love of baseball are obvious from the baseball-themed wreath on the front door and the doorbell’s ring.
Mary said “We eat, sleep, and breathe baseball. We’re huge Astros fans. We were at a game last night. Nicholas, show her what you got.” Nicholas leaves and returns quickly. He proudly hands over an autographed baseball and explains: “The guy who signed it is Martin Maldonado, Number 15. He’s the catcher for the Astros. He was warming up in the bullpen. I went over there and asked him if he’d sign my ball. I threw the ball over the bullpen fence. Maldonado signed the ball, threw it back over the fence to me, and pushed the pen back through the fence to me.”
The boys play baseball with the Montgomery Little League and the homeschool Mustangs teams. In addition, both boys take private baseball lessons every week with Lance Miles, a private coach. They also participate in summer baseball camp a couple of days a week.
Although they are young to have plans for after graduating high school, Nicholas hopes to get a college scholarship for baseball and play for Texas A&M or Texas Tech. “I do some catching, pitching, and second base for the Mustangs.” After college, he wants to play major league baseball. He hopes to eventually start a business in baseball memorabilia.
Dillon is leaving his options open, but he doesn’t seem enthusiastic about attending college.
Fortunately, both boys are eligible for financial assistance to attend college because of their mother’s service. She was in the Army for eight years, including 33 months as a combat medic in Iraq. The Hazlewood Act provides qualified veterans an education benefit of up to 150 hours of tuition and fee exemption at Texas state-supported colleges or universities.
Mary said, “I don’t think people know how much the American Legion does to honor civilians as well as veterans. The ALA loves to honor youth who do good deeds. It doesn’t have to be heroic. They like to hear stories about kids doing good deeds and heroic deeds. The Legion has a Good Deed Award as well as a Youth Hero Award, and seeks to honor our youth, as well as adults and our veterans. Unit 305 serves the Woodlands, Spring, and Conroe. To nominate someone for an award in this area, email mcatsanchez@yahoo.com.”
Postcards Magazine
936-293-1188
PO Box 690
Huntsville, TX 77342
