92 Moose Hometown Hero – Ryan-Michael Havey

A big 'tip of the Moose antlers' to our latest 'Hometown Hero' powered by the O'Connor Auto Park.

Ryan-Michael Havey

Junior Firefighter

Pittsfield

Ryan-Michael is a senior in high school. He attends Maine Central Institute and is also a Jr. Fire Fighter with the Pittsfield Fire Department. All his life he has understood and seen fist hand what it means to be a person in the community that helps in every situation whether it be a car accident, structure fire or helping someone move boxes or donating time to help an organization with in the community. These he has learned by jumping into the passenger seat with his father who is also a fireman with the Pittsfield Fire Department when any type of call came in from the time he was one year old. On October 7, 2013 he was heading back to school to attend his last class of the day before he had to head off to work. He was driving his father's truck, which also has a radio in it, when he heard "the call that I believe will change his life" come through to 911. The call came over the radio as a vehicle in the river with someone still inside. Ryan-Michael's instinct was to obviously respond, so he was off. Once on scene he said he got out of the truck and there were quite a few people standing by watching as the Pittsfield police officer and police chief were in the river trying to help the lady get out of the car screaming for help while the car sunk further underwater. No one jumped to their aid, and Ryan-Michael, , who was 17 years old, with out any thought took off his shoes and sweatshirt and jumped into the river and swam over to help them pull the lady out of her vehicle and get her medical aid. They get her out of the car and Ryan-Michael looked around and found this item that floated and they pulled her up onto it until the rescue boat was able to reach them. By the time she got to the shore, she was unconscious and the rescue started CPR.
I know the officers should get the same amount of recognition, but for a 17 year-old kid to go above and beyond with out any hesitation to rescue someone is absolutely a heroic act. A home town hero!!! I am Ryan-Michael's mother and I couldn't be more proud of my son and he is "MY HOME TOWN HERO"!!

Nominated by Amy Twitchell