Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Drew McCarthy - A Hometown Hero

...Andrew McCarthy of Wakefield was returning from his moored lobster boat with two friends in an aluminum dinghy when he noticed a 12-year-old boy calling for help in the waves, drifting away from the beach.

"We were rowing back by the rocks, and I saw a kid getting dragged out," said McCarthy, whose family has a cottage on Glenmere Road. "He had lost his boogie board, and he was starting to panic and yell for help."

The boy was Logan Trupiano of Broadway Terrace in Rockport, who had been body-boarding with two other boys when the tide changed and the currents dragging swimmers out to sea at the Gloucester corner of the beach began acting on the Rockport side.

One of the boys, Christopher Ambrose, 11, of Rockport, was able to claw his way back to the beach and another 11-year-old Rockporter, Adam Rudolph, made it to the rocks by Cape Hedge, where his mother, Allison Rudolph, plucked him from the water.

McCarthy rowed toward Trupiano and dragged the struggling swimmer on board, but in the effort his boat was turned broadside to the waves and was swamped by an incoming breaker. McCarthy dragged Trupiano in to the shore, where the 11-year-old was shaken and scratched from getting thrown from the boat, but otherwise unharmed.

"I was under for 10 seconds and Drew grabbed my hand and brought me back into the beach," Trupiano said yesterday. "Another kid risked his life to save mine." - Salemnews.com

Excellent job, Drew.

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