MARCUS, IA -
He's been in the Boy Scouts ever since he could join, going camping and earning merit badges, but this Hometown Hero from Marcus, Iowa, never thought that training could mean the difference between life and death for one of his best friends.
Life-long Boy Scout Sawyer Heidesch never thought going for a walk could make him a hero.
"I could feel the wind go by me, and just all of a sudden she just wasn't there," says Sawyer Heidesch, a Boy Scout from Marcus, Iowa, and KMEG 14 Hometown Hero.
Sawyer and his friend Melissa went walking for a physical fitness merit badge in June 2010.
"We walk fairly often, a couple times a week, so when vehicles come passing by it's no big deal, they see us, they go around, this time they didn't," says Heidesch.
In an instant, Sawyer became a life-line for his best friend, a motorcycle had hit Melissa.
"I was standing roughly here and she was right next to me, and then she wasn't," says Heidesch.
The accident happened so fast Sawyer didn't have a chance to be shocked. His Boy Scout training kicked in almost immediately.
"I made sure that she stayed awake and kept her eyes open, instead of going unconscious," says Heidesch.
Melissa was in the ditch; Sawyer gave her first aid and called 911.
"The next thing I remember is waking up a few days later in the hospital and not having a foot," says Melissa Tabke, a friend who claims Sawyer saved her life that day.
She lost her leg but says Sawyer's years of Scout training made the difference.
"If he wouldn't have been there, I would definitely be dead," says Tabke.
"I look back at it now and I still have no idea how or what I realized I was doing at the time, it was second nature, I just did it and had no idea I was doing it," says Heidesch.
Now Melissa has more than a friend, she has a hero.
Since that accident last June, Sawyer has earned the rank of Eagle Scout.
He's in college right now, but he does hope one day become a Scout Leader.
