SPIRO, Okla. — When a group of Spiro High School students saw a man drowning in a city lake, the girls sprang into action to bring him back to shore.
The five girl team of heroes swam about 600 yards out in the middle of the lake to save the 83-year-old man.
“I think anybody would have done it. It’s just something that needed to be done. We definitely don’t feel like it, we feel there’s more we could have done,” said Gracie, one of the teens who helped rescue the man.
The "new town heroes" are what the group of friends is now known as.
The high school seniors were out kayaking when they noticed the man struggling to stay afloat.
“I jumped in the water and started swimming, and they were already at him holding his head out of the water and he was worried about his boat so she went and started pulling the boat back," Gracie said. "Alyssa called 911 and Caitlyn went to help Alyssa explain where we were at so the first responders could come find us.”
David Hogan is one of the Spiro Firefighters who responded to the scene. He says by the time they arrived the rescue was already done by the team of teens.
“He has lost control of his boat and fallen overboard, couldn’t get back on and they were there, they saw that he was in distress, they paddled out, were able to get him up out of the water where he could breathe and paddle him all the back to shore,” Hogan said.
When the man was able to finally catch his breath, he had this message for his heroes:
“He told us that he loved us and that he was thankful that we were there, and we all cried,” Gracie said.