ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, June 25, 1996 TAG: 9606250079
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOANNE POINDEXTER STAFF WRITER
A 13-YEAR-OLD remained calm and used her head to save a Girl Scout leader and fellow Cadet when tubing down the Roanoke River.
The Girl Scout Cadets and their leaders are calling her a hero, but Kristen "Froggie" Simpson downplays her rescue efforts.
The 13-year-old says she followed Scouting directions and reacted the way anyone would when she pulled a Scout leader and a Cadet out of strong currents during a tubing trip down the Roanoke River on Friday.
She also grabbed a Cadet who had toppled into the water and begun hyperventilating, and calmed her. A couple of Cadets also used Kristen's inner tube to steady themselves and stand in the knee-high water after spilling over.
All the other Cadets were still excited when talking about the episode three days later, but not Kristen.
"All I did was ... I mean, it just happened fast. I just did what anybody would," she said Monday at her Northeast Roanoke home.
But up at Camp Dark Hollow, off Virginia 311 near Hanging Rock, several of the other Cadets were excited when talking about "the little thing that happened Friday." Several said they learned the importance of working together because of their accident.
The 22 Cadets, 12-and 13- year-olds, had been together in day camp all week during such activities as hiking the Appalachian Trail and caving at Mountain Lake. Friday, they piled into four cars and rode to the Roanoke River, just below Dixie Caverns. Of the four-hour tubing trip, about five minutes halfway through are most memorable.
The girls had been given directions for going down the river and had taken precautions: a lifeguard was with them, and they all were wearing life jackets. They also were told not to endanger themselves by jumping out of their inner tubes if someone else was in danger; one of the adults would attempt any rescue.
Although that part of the river isn't deep, recent rains had strengthened the flow. When the Cadets reached a large tree in the river, the current kept some of them from going around it as directed. The next few moments were confusing, but the Cadets recalled it like this:
Kristen, who took swimming lessons two years ago, maneuvered to the right of the tree and leaned against it while she waited for the others to move around. Then she saw Nickie "Scrooge" Evenson, one of the three adult leaders, fall off her tube. Kristen then climbed onto the leaning tree to get a stable position.
Evenson's tube floated under Kristen, but Kristen was able to grab her.
"It was only about a minute, but it seemed like three years," Evenson said of Kristen's efforts to help her stand in water that didn't even come to her waist. "She knew I was a non-swimmer, and she worked at getting me out."
While this was going on, other Cadets waiting on the others began to flip over in the quick moving current but were able to steady themselves by grabbing others. Several, however, bumped into each other and landed on top of Courtney VanSandt.
"I turned blue and black and kind of blinked out," Courtney recalled. "I just kept saying, 'We are going to die.'''
Kristen said she remembers grabbing Courtney and repeatedly telling her to calm down. "I may have shook her," Kristen said.
She also remembers excitement being added to the situation when Jessica Sturm and a couple of other campers were cornered by a snake hanging from another tree. The campers had been told to beat on their tubes to scare off snakes in the water, but there was confusion and a lot of screaming when one was discovered in a tree.
Courtney's mom, Pat VanSandt, said her daughter would have drowned had it not been for Kristen. When she picked up her daughter after camp, Pat VanSandt said, Courtney was still pale and had a high pulse rate.
But VanSandt and Girl Scout officials said all precautions were taken and none of the girls was seriously injured.
Kristen "kept a cool head like a Girl Scout is supposed to. And most important, she did not risk herself," said Julie Beckner, director of marketing and communications for the Virginia Skyline Council of Girl Scouts.
"She got herself safe first," Evenson said of Kristin, a straight-A student who is headed into the ninth grade at Northside High School.
Kristen only told her mother, Pam Simpson, that she pulled a counselor out of the water. Not until VanSandt called to thank Kristen did Pam and Johnny Simpson learn of their daughter's heroism.
"She didn't act like it was any kind of big deal. I guess she kind of downplayed it," Pam Simpson said.
Laura White, Karla Hoffman, Jessica McCallum, Beth Bradley and Jessica Sturm said that although they were afraid, they learned the important lesson of pulling together. And, they said, Kristen is their hero.
And even though "everyone freaked," said Karla, the experience of riding an inner tube was fun.
They all want to go tubing again and look forward to this week's canoeing trip.
And, they said, they've already selected next year's service project - cut up the tree in the Roanoke River.
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: PHILIP HOLMAN/Staff. Despite saving two people, Kristenby CNBSimpson's parents said she downplayed the story. color.