Written by: Bailey Hemphill
presents
INDEPENDENCE
FIREWORKS
Young Hero: Mark Beischel
M
ark Beischel, 18, attends Gross Catholic
High School. His favorite pastimes include working on acting and performance skills and participating on the Gross robotics team, for which he’s the robot driver. Mark has also recently received his seven-year service pin with the Boy Scouts and his Eagle Scout rank, and it’s no wonder why. He is a great example of a responsible young man.
One day, when Mark was out driving in Bellevue with his mom, working on his Eagle Scout project, he saw a man standing on a ladder two stories up in a tree, trying to cut down a branch with a chainsaw. “I knew it wasn’t going to end well,” says Mark, who noticed the man’s ladder resting against the very branch he was cutting. While they were about to pass, the branch and the ladder fell. Mark saw the man hanging from the tree right above where his chainsaw fell, worried that he would land on the chainsaw. The man ended up falling two stories, fortunately missing the chainsaw, but Mark knew he’d still needed help after the fall. “I told my mom to punch it,” he says. “I ran over and checked the situation, yelled for one of the man’s family members to call 911, and treated him for shock. I wanted to stop him from having a heart attack, and I knew there could be damage to his spine, so I had him stay perfectly still.” When the emergency vehicles arrived to treat the man, Mark was told that, had he not been there, the man probably would have died. “It was just procedure. They train us in Boy Scouts that, when things go wrong, you have to be prepared.”
JULY
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Mark’s been in bad situations before, including being at Camp Cedars during a terrible summer storm a few years ago where people were getting crushed and impaled with flying objects. “Boy Scouts are good at problem-solving,” he says. “You stick kids out in the woods, and they’ll figure out how to survive. I’ve had my legs crushed by a falling tree, and I’ve almost set my arms on fire. We’re very good at getting out of these situations.” Mark is thankful for all that the Boy Scouts have taught him throughout the years, and it has obviously paid off since he can work through situations without panic. “Boy Scouts teaches you to think differently than you normally would, and the training is applicable for the future. Things are always SPECTRUM going to go wrong, but [Boy Scouts] teaches you how to fix those problems.”
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Family Spectrum and Omaha Storm Chasers would like to honor your Young Hero. Send nominations to Bailey@OmahaPublications.com. • readonlinenow.com June 2012 • • • •
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