HOUGHTON - Fifty years ago, Billie Bloomfield used the skills she picked up in Girl Scouts to save a life.
Monday, she talked to the members of Girl Scout Troop 5375 about that day and other experiences in Girl Scouts.
As a 12-year-old Girl Scout, Bloomfield had recently taken a water safety course. She turned theory into practice one July day in downstate Alpena. While she was out swimming, she heard a woman screaming "Help!"
"I ran, jumped into the water, and I swam out to where the lady was pointing," she said. "Her little boy, he didn't know how to swim, and he was out too deep."
Bloomfield tried to grab him the way she'd learned - putting her arm around his neck, and pulling him in.
"I couldn't do it," she said. "He was too heavy."
On the second try, she pulled him up, then brought him to shore, where she performed CPR.
When her father got home from work, she told him what had happened. She expected congratulations. She got something better.
"He said, 'Get your suit on,'" she said. "And he went into the water with me and stayed there for a long time. He didn't want me to be afraid of the water."
For her actions, the Girl Scouts awarded Bloomfield the Bronze Cross, which is given for saving or attempting to save a life while putting their own life at risk.
"There are very few people who have gotten that," she said.
In February 1963, she also got a letter of commendation from the office of President John F. Kennedy. It read in part: "Courage is a quality much admired by the president and he sends you his congratulations and very best wishes."
Bloomfield's heroic act will be part of a display in a museum in Lansing this summer commemorating the Girl Scouts' 100th anniversary.
Bloomfield spent two years in Brownies and another six years in Girl Scouts. She expressed gratitude for the strong leadership she had in Scouts, and told the girls, who are in the younger Daisies group, to pay attention to their own leaders.
"It's important to enjoy your Daisies, and then maybe some of you will be Girl Scouts," she said.
After the presentation, Bloomfield's granddaughter, 7-year-old Amelia Kamm, presented Bloomfield with an honorary membership in the troop.
"I thought it was amazing," Kamm said. "If I did that, I would be proud of myself, and she's probably proud of herself for doing that."
