Taranaki boy recognised for his brave actions during 111 call
When Quinn Hazlitt was whisked out of class suddenly on Thursday afternoon, he thought he was in trouble.
Instead, the 13-year-old Waitara High School student was being awarded the ASB Super Saver Bravery Award for helping his grandma last year during a medical event.
“He phoned 111 and our team said he spoke with such maturity and great communication,” Justin Lowcay, Taranaki community educator for St John New Zealand, said.
“He helped get the place ready for the ambulance by putting the dog away and opened up the gates so the ambulance could come straight through and stayed with his grandma through this time and phoned his own family in Taranaki to let them know what happened.”
It took a while for Quinn to get his head around the idea before the award was presented in front of a whole school assembly.
The best way he could articulate the whirlwind was “very exciting”.
The recognition comes via a first aid course launched by ASB and St John in 2015 that teaches kids essential lifesaving skills so they can take action in an emergency.
Then, one year later, ASB launched the ASB Super Saver Bravery Award into the programme to recognise the brave acts of tamariki who displayed skills learnt in the programme during an emergency.
In the eight years the scheme has been running, more than 55 ASB Super Savers have received the award.
Quinn is the first person in Taranaki to receive the award.
St John and ASB commended Quinn’s bravery before putting a golden cape on him.
His family had also snuck into the assembly without Quinn knowing and had been keeping the secret for close to a month.
Julia, his grandma who he had helped, travelled down from Waikato for the event and couldn’t hold her tears of pride back when she saw her grandson.
“It’s amazing and well deserved. I’m so proud of him.”