Scouts honor Brooks boy Quick thinking saved grandfather

BROOKS – David Roche accepted his national certificate from the Boy Scouts of America on Saturday – a little embarrassed after his mother kissed him on the cheek – and then went outside to play in typical 11-year-old fashion.

The boy from Brooks is probably still too young to understand the magnitude of the honor, but those around Roche were happy to remind him that what he did for his grandfather was worthy of it.

“I’ve been involved with Boy Scouts for many years, and I know of only four young men who have gotten national recognition,” Stanley Munson, Roche’s Cub Scout pack master, told a small gathering of family and friends at the Varney Memorial Building in Brooks. “They don’t give them away easily, so this is extremely special and rare.”

Roche, soon to be a fifth-grader, received a National Certificate of Merit from the Boy Scouts of America in recognition of performance of a significant act of service.

That act happened in November 2005, when Roche, then only 9 years old, came home from school one day to find his grandfather collapsed and unconscious in the backyard.

“He was lying there outside and it had gotten cold, so I went and got blankets and helped stop his bleeding. Then I called 911,” Roche said Saturday, explaining the incident.

“I was a little scared,” he admitted.

Any fear in the boy’s heart didn’t stop him from doing the right thing and for essentially saving his grandfather’s life.

“What you have to remember is that David is still a very young man,” Munson said. “There are a lot of adults out there that would probably freeze up in that situation. The temperature had gotten down to a very dangerous level, and if he hadn’t acted so quickly, things might have been different.”

Sarina Roche, David’s mom, said the paramedics who arrived in the ambulance that day couldn’t say enough about what her son had done to help save his grandfather’s life.

“They wrote letters, and every time they saw him around, they would bring it up,” she said. “I’m so proud of him.”

David Roche had been involved with Boy Scouts, or Cub Scouts, since he was in first grade. He said he likes it well enough, but maybe that will change now he has something to brag about.

“I don’t know what I’ll do with the certificate, maybe hang it up near my bed,” he said.

Saturday’s brief ceremony brought together family and community members to celebrate Roche’s heroism, but unfortunately his grandfather wasn’t feeling well enough to make it, Sarina Roche said.

After he was presented the award, the shy boy was offered the chance to say a few words, but he declined.

“Actions speak louder than words anyway,” Munson told him. “Knowing that you did the right thing, that’s what matters.”