GEORGE NEWS - The NSRI team of Wilderness Station 23, heroically saved the lives of two teenage boys who were trapped in a waterfall. The team rescued the two canoeists from the icy Kaaimans river in December.

The boys’ canoes had been washed down the river and had landed in a deep ravine, where it got sucked into a vortex from which they could not escape. Bringing out the boys alive landed Hennie Niehaus and his team among the five finalist in the 2011 Centrum Guardian Project.

The Centrum Guardian Project (CGP), recognises and rewards the acts of courage and self-sacrifice that the people who ope-rate in the Emergency Service industry demonstrate each day. Among the five finalists were the NSRI team of Wilderness Station 23.

In the month of August, members of the public voted, via SMS to determine an overall winner. The name of Deon van Wyk came up more than 8000 times and he was named the overall winner. Eventually there were five finalists.
The brave NSRI team members who battled the waters that day are; Alto Hoffman (Crewman), Clifford Marlow (Deputy Station Commander), Donald Olivier (Rescue Swimmer), Hennie Niehaus (Station Commander), Hugh Bolttler (Crewman), Jaco de Jongh (Crewman).

A documentary re-inacting the rescue drama of each of the finalists, hosted by Ruda Landman was screened on SABC 3.
*This is the fourth year of the awards which was introduced by Centrum, a multivitamin formula company which is marketed by Pfizer Consumer Healthcare.



ARTIKEL: PAULINE LOURENS, GEORGE HERALD REPORTER