Henry Vega III honored by the Red Cross as Local Hereo
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Please go to
http://www.montereyarc.org/ for more inspiring and exciting stories about local hereos that were honored by the Monterey Chapter American Red Cross. We are very proud of Henry for doing the right thing in a very dangerous situation.
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 Henry Vega, IIIGood Samaritan, Youth Just about all of us hear about people who find themselves in dangerous situations ? and invariably we wonder how we would respond if the same thing happened to us. Would we make ourselves invisible? Would we flee? Would we panic? Or could we respond with grace, intuitively doing the right thing.
We?ll never know until we?re tested. That was the case for Henry Vega, III, a 16-year-old Monterey High School student with dreams of swimming in the Olympics.
Henry dropped by his bank in Monterey last June to make a quick deposit. He was in a bit of a hurry since he was due to meet his parents at a swim club potluck. His 25-year-old sister, Roscelia, was waiting for him outside. There?s just one other customer in the bank: a woman filling out a deposit slip ? and she has her young child with her.
Up to now, we?ve probably all been in the same situation. Here?s where it gets exciting.
Suddenly a man and a woman coming running into the bank, each waving guns. The man also has a briefcase. Both are wearing wigs and masks over their faces.
Henry?s response? Cool as can be, he runs to the other customer, who by now has her child on her shoulder, and ushers the two of them out a side emergency door. Now away from the guns, they run to a nearby house where they call the police. In the meantime, the female robber makes her exit, sees Henry?s sister, a cell phone in her hand, in the car. The robber points a gun at Roscelia and she wisely put her hands up and drops the cell phone. How did it all end? The robbers got away ? for a week. Henry?s folks left the swim club potluck and met up with their son and daughter at the bank. Henry never even learned the name of the woman he saved, but a short time later they ran into each other at the bank again and exchanged memories. And Henry returned to Monterey High School and kept on swimming. ? Henry Vega was nominated for this honor by Monterey High School principal Dan Albert |
