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Scout receives prestigious honor for saving his cousin's life
First member of Troop 500 to receive life-saving award since its inception in 1961
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ScoutSavesCuz

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Troop 500 bestowed a prestigious honor on one of its own Thursday for saving another person's life.
Scout Antwon Battle was honored with the Heroism Award for pulling his infant cousin out of a pond and providing life-saving CPR until EMS arrived.
Last Aug. 1, little Ni'ja Battle was being pushed around in his stroller by two older siblings when somehow the infant fell from his stroller and ended up in the pond near their mobile home park in Allenhurst. The frantic siblings ran to their house and called for their grandmother, Mary Battle. She called 911 and then ran into the bedroom to wake up her then 15-year-old grandson, Antwon Battle.
"I thought it was dream because I was asleep," Battle said as he recalled the event. "But my grandmother tapped me awake and told me that my cousin had fallen into the lake. I just started thinking 'oh my gosh.' I was freaking out. I just jumped up and ran to the lake and I saw him floating and it felt like my stomach was sucked in."
Battle jumped into the pond and made his way to his cousin's lifeless body.
"I went in and got him," he said. "I called his name and nothing happened so I brought him on the land and started CPR."
Battle had just completed a CPR course a week earlier while at Boy Scout summer camp. He had yet to earn his first aid badge when the incident occurred.
On Thursday he received that and more as he received the prestigious Heroism Award. The Coastal Empire Council of the Boy Scouts of America came to the unanimous decision that he deserved the award and the National Council agreed.
"He is the first scout to receive a life saving award since Troop 500 started back in 1961," Troop 500 scoutmaster Danny Peller said. "Only 94 of these awards were given out nationwide in 2007. He's been with us four years and he is a good kid.  He stays out of trouble and he is just a pleasure to have."
"I was not there when it happened but when I found out about it I was shocked," Battle's mother, Jeanine Jones, said as she remembered last summer's nightmare. "I was so amazed at what he did. It does my heart good to know as a single parent you can raise a boy who is respectful of others."
The Rev. James McKnight from the Walthourville Volunteer Fire department and an emergency chaplain arrived on scene shortly after Battle pulled his cousin from the water and continued resuscitation efforts. He was surprised to see it was Battle, who also rides on his school bus, who saved the little boy.
"On the day in question I received a call on my radio that a child had fallen into the lake. I was the second person on the scene besides Antwon and by the time I arrived there he had already pulled the child out of the lake. It's such a pleasure to see one of my school bus children do something of this magnitude."
Battle said he was happy when he realized he saved his cousin's life. He has thought about becoming a doctor and he said the experience made him realize he did wish to pursue medicine, realizing he was capable of saving lives.
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