Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?
That’s right, his name is Bob, and he’s a sponge. He also has square pants. Your kids love him and you will probably have his theme song stuck in your head for the rest of the day. But next time your munchkins are watching his show, you may not be so quick to push for a channel change. Eight-year-old Reese Ronceray says that without “Sponge Bob” he might not have been able to save five-year-old Andrew Gentile from drowning.
The five-year-old went into a man made lake while at a party for the families of children on his school bus route on Saturday. His mother, Shirley Gentile, thought the lake was shallow, so she didn’t stop him. When Andrew began to struggle because the water was actually far over his head, she jumped in to help but then panicked when she realized she couldn’t touch the six foot deep bottom either.
That’s when Reese came to the rescue.
“I just saw and then I just knew how to react, I jumped in,” Ronceray tells the Daily Record. “The hardest part was when we both went under, getting us back up to the surface.”
Reese swam to Andrew and pulled him close, subduing him so that Reese could get them back to the surface. It was just what a lifeguard would have done, and but Reese didn’t pick the move up from his local pool or Red Cross swimming classes. He was imitating something he’d seen on “Sponge Bob.”
But don’t depend on cartoons to teach your kids the basics of water safety – even if you can’t afford swimming and CPR classes, you can rent books and videos on the subject from the local library. Both you and your children should know how to deal with water emergencies before the swimming season starts – you never know when a little knowledge might save a life.
