The lake was calm,with children playing in the water and families fishing. Abruptly, the atmosphere changed to terror when a family started signaling for help.

This past summer, senior Ty Crenshaw saved not one, but two lives as a lifeguard at Lake Meredith and at the city pool.

“It was the first day of the summer, and my friends and I had decided that we wanted to go to the lake before we did anything else,” Crenshaw said. “We were hanging out, and at some point this little girl had started going out on her own.”

The girl could not swim.

“Her family pulled her out of the water,” Crenshaw said. “Then they started signaling that they needed medical help.”

Crenshaw, along with senior Bella Barnett, came to the aid of the girl, who was conscious but needed to get water out of her lungs.

“First we laid the girl on her side,” Barnett said. “Then we patted her back until she coughed up the water.”

Senior Ben Allen witnessed Barnett and Crenshaw administer first aid.

“It was scary watching the whole thing unfold,” Allen said. “It really hit me that the girl might die.”

Once the paramedics arrived, they found out the girl would live and the rest of the day went without a hitch. The next day at the public pool where Ty works, a similar event occurred. Within the first hour of life-guarding, a boy jumped off the diving board, resurfaced, but made no effort to move. Crenshaw realized he had to take action.

“I blew my whistle, what we do to let all the other guards know,” Crenshaw said. “Then I jumped into the water and got him out.”

Through both of these ordeals, Crenshaw maintains he was just doing his job.

“I don’t consider myself a hero,” Crenshaw said. “I just felt like I did what any person should do in that situation.”