Grayville Teen Awarded Key to the City for Heroic Act

A hero.  Grayville officials awarded 15-year-old Zeke Roosevelt with a key to the city Monday night in honor of the young man’s efforts to save a youngster on June 15^th.  According to the incident report, Roosevelt was on the job at the Grayville City Pool.  He says he saw the child go down the slide and swim away slowly.  He says while checking on him asking if he was ok, the youth confirmed he was but immediately went under prompting Roosevelt to jump in and swim the boy to safety.  Roosevelt said he could hear the boy coughing up water, but was unable to get it all out.  Roosevelt says his training kicked in and he subsequently performed the Heimlich maneuver which helped expel the rest of the water.

Grayville Mayor Travis Thompson had this to say before presenting Roosevelt a key to the city.

“On June 15h, Zeke Roosevelt performed life saving action on a child while on duty as a lifeguard at the Grayville Pool.  Zeke is the son of Kyle and Jessica Roosevelt and Ashley Lingafelter.  He performed his job as he needed to do and deserves to be recognized for it.  At only 15 years old, he had a choice to make; he followed his training and without his action, there could’ve been a different outcome.”