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Kids & Family

Local Boy Scout Commended by Red Cross for Heroics

Connor Stotts recognized for his heroism by Red Cross. Earlier this year, he received the National Boy Scout's highest honor—the Honor Medal with Crossed Palms.

Connor Stotts, son of Gizele Farland Stotts and Maj. Bryan Stotts, stationed at Camp Pendleton, has been honored for life-saving heroism in July of 2011 pulling three friends from a dangerous riptide at the beach in Oceanside.

The American Red Cross San Diego and Imperial Counties Chapter presented its Youth Award to Connor Sept. 27 at its 10th annual Real Heroes Breakfast.

Its theme was “ordinary people, extraordinary courage.”

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Connor was one of 11 individuals and organizations to be honored aboard the USS Midway, now a museum in San Diego Bay. The ceremony was attended by 500 people.

Connor was 17 at the time of the rescue, ready for his senior year at Oceanside High.

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Related: Teenage Hero Awarded Boy Scouts' Highest Valor Award

He'd gone to the beach with a church group and, when asked by his parents, who already knew of his heroism, what had happened that day, said simply that he had been baptized. He left out any mention of his role in a scary rescue.

But three other youths said they were drowning when Connor pulled them to the shore, fighting near-drowning and exhaustion himself.

He credited his lifeguard training with helping to rescue his friends.

Stotts—a Boy Scout— was commended by the National Boy Scout Council by receiving its highest award for valor, the Honor Medal with Crossed Palms – given only 270 times since its inception in 1911.

Connor is now a freshman at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and a midshipman on a Navy ROTC scholarship with Marine Corps option.

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