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ROY — When Clip Holverson and his wife Joelle Holverson were traveling on Thanksgiving Day with their sons, Jon and Daniel, saving someone’s life was not in their plan for that day.
While driving back to Roy from Wyoming, the family spotted a car stuck in a ditch with nobody around. Clip Holverson, a nurse, pulled the car over and got out to investigate.
“We figured if someone was in trouble, we might as well be the first ones to stop,” 16-year-old Jon said.
Clip Holverson ran back to his vehicle to get help and to grab the medical kit located in their car. When Jon, Daniel and Joelle Holverson went down to the ditch to help, they saw two young girls in the backseat and an unconscious man in the driver's seat.
“He wasn’t breathing when we found him,” Jon said. “His heart rate was really slow.”
Jon and Clip Holverson immediately pulled the driver out of the vehicle to perform CPR on the man while 15-year-old Daniel and Joelle Holverson got the young girls out of the car and up out of the ditch.
Clip Holverson used a breathing device on the man while Jon traded off doing chest compressions with another man who had arrived on the scene to offer help.
“It was pretty nerve-wracking to do everything that I did,” Jon said.
They continued to perform CPR until the ambulance arrived.
“I didn’t realize (the paramedics) pulled up or anything because I was just in the zone doing what had to be done,” Jon said.
Almost six months later, Jon and Daniel were surprised and awarded through the Boy Scouts of America for their heroic efforts — Jon received the National Certificate of Merit and Daniel received the Council Certificate of Merit.
The parents wanted the awards to be a surprise, so the boys were not told about it until a few hours before receiving it.
“I knew that something fishy was going to go on that day because we had a bunch of extra food,” Jon said.
McKay Allen, the district executive of Boy Scouts, presented the awards to the boys on May 7 during their regular Court of Honor.
“I was pretty surprised because I didn’t really know what was going to happen,” Daniel said. “I was pretty happy to get a big award like that.”
Jon and Daniel attributed their training in Boy Scouts to being able to help in this situation.
“I did a lot of training through Scouts and I felt really prepared going into it,” Jon said. “But when I got in, I thought, 'Holy crap I never thought this would actually happen.’”
Boy Scouts Advancement Chairperson Tania Pickett said that both these awards are given very rarely and she was very excited that the boys were able to use skills they learned in Boy Scouts to help in this situation.
“That’s basically what Boy Scouts is all about: to prepare to help people at all times,” Pickett said. “That’s the Scout oath. They should always be looking for people to help.”
Pickett said both Daniel and Jon are very active in Boy Scouts.
“When they saw that happen, they jumped right in,” Pickett said. “I don’t think too many young men would be scared when they have training like that.”
The winners of this award are featured once a month in the Boys’ Life magazine.
Camilla Stimpson is a news writing intern for KSL.com and enjoys reporting on politics, crimes and her own awkward moments on 50shadesofawkward.com. When not writing, she can be found watching "30 Rock" or "Law & Order," napping, planning trips she can't afford and Googling dogs she can't have.
