Alison Mammola, a nineteen-year-old lifeguard, was honored in Acton Town Hall by local and state officials today for her quick thinking and outstanding bravery in saving a drowning 5-year-old boy on Sunday, June 23, 2024.
In the spacious Francis Faulkner Meeting Room, over one hundred people participated in the 15-minute event, with the Mammola family taking up the front seats, facing the Select Board and the lectern, media, and town police and fire department personnel, in dress uniforms, lining both the side and back walls.
Representative Sena talked about how he and Representative Simon Cataldo, upon hearing of Mammola’s amazing act, felt strongly about needing to promptly recognize her outstanding act of courage.
Anita Arnum, Acton’s Fire Chief, talked about how children’s drowning is often a “silent” and “brief” tragedy that can happen in 30 to 45 seconds, speaking as a first responder and expressing deep-felt appreciation to Alison Mammola. Separately, the Police Chief also expressed his gratitude for Ms Mammola’s actions.
After the awards, Mammola answered questions from the press and audience for about four minutes.
Q: Have you seen the family since the incident?
Mammola: No, I haven’t.
Q: How long have you been a lifeguard? Did you rely on training at the moment? Or did it just go automatically, like knowing what to do?
Mammola: I have been a lifeguard for three years. No, I never even had to go into water before. At the time, I just went into action. It felt like just muscle memory. But afterwards, I felt a rush of emotions because it’s scary. I’m just glad he is ok.
Q: You’ve done this huge thing. Are you planning to continue to be a lifeguard? Do you feel like this is an important calling?
Mammola: Yeah, I definitely will finish up this summer. I don’t know my plan next year yet, but I am planning to get the recertification at the end of the summer just in case I’ll be in that situation again.
Q: What made you want to be a lifeguard in the first place?
Mammola: Growing up I went to a private pool club. There are a lot of lifeguards there. I really look up to them so I wanted to become a lifeguard.
Mammola went on to describe that the pool was not very busy at the time. She announced to the three families there that she was going on her lunch break. When she heard the scream, she just went into action. She pulled the boy from the bottom of the pool (nine feet deep) and performed 2 rounds of CPR. He regained consciousness after the second round. First responders arrived while she was performing CPR. Mammola mentioned that the whole thing was about eight minutes but that it felt like 2 seconds.
After the Q & A, two women from the Bellows Farm Condominium approached Mammola and voiced their heartfelt gratitude.
They asked Mammola what gave her the presence of mind to jump into action like that. Her sister said that Mammola is just that kind of person. Another sister nodded. “She just went into a zone,” said Mom. Dad pointed out all the sports training Mammola has had over the years.
In the end, all present agreed that probably both the good training and the physical courage gained from the training and her sports came through for the moment’s adrenaline surge and heroic act.
Mammola went on to say that afterwards, when the first responders asked her how she felt, she started to cry. “It was amazing how supportive everyone was,” said Mammola about that moment when she had just successfully resuscitated the drowning 5-year-old boy.
Sarah (Zhuo Rei) Peng has been a resident of Bellows Farm for more than twenty-three years. She is an English Language Learning teacher at Groton Dunstable Middle and High Schools.