"We Are Counting Our Blessings" After Kids Rescued From Icy Pond

Four kids were rescued from a pond in the Mariner's Cove subdivision, and parents are now calling a neighbor who quickly jumped in to help a hero.

Rescuer Robert George shrugs off that title, saying he just did what any other parent would do. 

"It all started when I heard my daughter screaming," said George, recounting the story of how he ended up in the pond on Feb. 16 pulling children out from the icy water. "My daughter heard people screaming outside that kids had fallen through the ice. I ran out the door and could see three kids in the pond."

George and other neighbors in the close-knit Mariner's Cove subdivision in Third Lake, off of Washington Street and Route 45, sprang into action. Someone called 911. 

Ryan Dugan, 9, had already crawled out of the pond. Neighbor Izabela Stepien grabbed a long rope and threw it out to two siblings, 12-year-old Mary Wessely and 10-year-old Joey Wessely, George said.

"Another boy, Jake, was further out," George said. "He was screaming that he couldn't feel his legs due to the cold water."

George said he tied the rope around his waist before jumping in. "That way, I knew I could get back," he said. "I am a father too. I just kept going out to him. I kept thinking about not wanting to ever lose one of my three girls. I wasn't going to let anything happen to him."

But the boy was far enough out in the pond that the rope wasn't quite long enough to allow George to make contact.

"I couldn't quite reach him," George recalled. "Jake had a stick in his hand. I grabbed it and pulled him close and threw his arms around my neck. Then we headed for the shore. Parents on the shore were pulling us in by the rope."

He said the ice was thick enough in places that he had to "take Jake off of my shoulders and start beating the ice with my arms."

When the rescue squads arrived, all the kids were safely on shore. No one had hypothermia or had to be transported to the hospital.

"We are counting our blessings," said Fred Wessely, Mary and Joey's father. "I was at work when my wife Cheryl called me. She said the kids fell through the ice at the pond. I thought they were close to the shore and just got a little wet. When I got home and saw the path through the ice, it was way further out than I expected. We're very lucky."

Wessely said his kids said they were taking a shortcut across the pond to get to the park when the ice started to break.

"My kids were pretty panicked," Wessely said. "They can swim but they couldn't get out. My son said every time he tried to get out, he'd slip back in. It was a scary situation."

He credited the neighbors, including George, for saving the kids.

"Robert George is definitely a hero," Wessely said. "There were actually quite a few people involved in the rescue. Izabela got the rope and Maribeth Rauch's daughter saw the kids in the water. She and Maribeth first threw the rope out to the kids. Then Robert tied the other end of the rope around his waist and jumped in. It was really a big group effort that saved all the kids."

There are people who have lived here for 20 years who have never seen kids fall through the ice, Wessely said. The recent warm temperatures created conditions where the ice was much thinner in some places than in others, and it gave way.

Wessely said that it is a very safe neighborhood and that kids generally stay off the pond when it isn't frozen over. "Maybe there could be a ladder and a rope with a rescue ring on it at each end of the pond," Wessely said when asked about safety. "A lot of people learned a lesson from this one."

Mostly, he and his wife are just grateful.

"We are very indebted to the neighbors," Wessely said. "If it weren't for them, who knows where we'd be today. They took action and were quick on their feet."

George said all the parents have been thanking him and apologizing that their kids were out there in the first place. He said he was just glad to help.

"Everyone keeps saying that word "hero," and I feel uncomfortable with that," he said. "I just did what any parent would have done."