One of our Space Education Center volunteers was awarded a rare honor for his brave actions last summer when he fought and wrestled off a large pit bull that was attacking his mother on their front porch.
"Only a handful of these awards are handed out each year (nationwide)," said Delyle Johnson, a local representative from Boy Scouts of America who presented Collin Jensen with the award during a court of honor. Jensen received the Lifesaving Honor Medal for "unusual heroism and skill in saving or attempting to save life at considerable risk to self," according to the National Court of Honor. He was mowing a neighbor's lawn next door on the evening of July 21 when the young Scout saw the pit bull run into his yard and attack a small dog that a neighbor had entrusted his family to watch while she went on vacation.
"He screamed for help and I came running out the front door," his mother Andrea Jensen said. "The dog had already ripped open the underside of the little schnauzer and there was blood all over the porch." When Andrea Jensen bent over to help her son save the dog from the pit bull's bite it leapt at her, knocking her on her back, she said.
"The bites were on both of her hands and had broken the skin," Orem police stated in their report. Collin "punched, pulled and pushed the dog away" so his mother could get to her feet and retreat inside the house, she said. The dog, however, wasn't done and followed her.
Andrea Jensen said she slammed the dog in the door a few times while it attempted to burst in after her, she said. But her son "kept fighting; he just kept punching it the whole time so we could shut it out and escape."
Witnessing the bloody battle affected Collin Jensen's 7-year-old sister enough she had to receive counseling.
The award was a surprise for the Orem High junior.
Congratulations to Collin! This speaks highly of the type of individuals we have volunteering at the Space Center.
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