She saved 9-year-old Scott Hanson from drowning in the Manitowoc-Two Rivers YMCA pool in 1973. 50 years later, he connects to tell her thanks.
MANITOWOC – Half a century after a lifeguard saved him from drowning in the Manitowoc-Two Rivers YMCA pool, Scott Hanson said a heart-felt “Thank you.”
A few years ago, his wife, Sheryl, went on a hunt for Joan Bouril, who was 19 years old in February 1973 when she pulled a then-9-year-old Scott out of the indoor pool and gave him the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation that saved his life. They wanted to tell her how grateful they were and tell her about his four grown children and 11 grandchildren.
But after hitting a dead end with her online sleuthing, Sheryl reached out to the Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter.
A few days after a story about Scott’s search for the lifeguard was printed and posted online, Joan Cloutier reached out to the newspaper. Someone had sent a clip of the newspaper to her and she was eager to connect with Scott.
“I remember that day very well,” Cloutier told the newspaper about that afternoon of Saturday, Feb. 24, 1973. “There were a lot of kids in the pool that day. He was lying in the bottom of the pool near where the shallow end turns into the deep end.”
She praised the lifeguard training she learned at the Y, saying they had practiced how to save someone so often she automatically knew what to do.
“I swam really fast, I went under, and brought him up,” Cloutier said. “He looked kind of bluish. I started giving him mouth-to-mouth, and I remembered them telling us to keep the chin back, so I focused on that. Then, he took a deep breath, I was so relieved.”
Shortly after, paramedics arrived and took the boy to Holy Family Memorial Hospital.
Scott doesn’t remember much about the incident. He recalls playing basketball with other kids using a hoop in the shallow end of the pool. He thinks he might have been elbowed in the head and went under.
Cloutier received an award for her efforts, and a photo was published in the newspaper. She left Manitowoc to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison, married Daniel Cloutier and moved to northern California.
Scott didn’t think about the event much, until his mother, Janice Hanson, found an old newspaper article in her attic.
Through her research, Sheryl learned that Joan, the daughter of William and Zita Bouril, graduated from UW-Madison in December 1975 with a degree in horticulture and business. A Herald Times Reporter wedding announcement showed she and Dan married in Fort Lauderdale in April 1976.
The young couple moved to San Jose, where Joan worked as a research technician for L. Castle Seed Company. She became a master gardener and they’ve lived there ever since.
Sheryl and Scott made the excited phone call with Joan and Dan on March 25. They talked for an hour-and-a-half.
“We all got along so well,” Scott said. “I couldn’t believe how well we hit it off, how much we have in common. They are very neat people.”
They are now getting to know each other via email exchanges.
Joan is a master garden and is giving Sheryl, a newbie, plenty of advice. Dan is a Green Bay Packers fan, who shared photos of himself as a boy with Coach Vince Lombardi.
They plan to meet in person eventually.
“I wish they were our next-door neighbors, or at least lived in the state,” Scott said. “But we always wanted to take a trip out to northern California, so I’m sure we will do that at some point. Finding them was such a blessing, I’m really glad we connected.”
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Contact reporter Patti Zarling at pzarling@gannett.com or call 920-606-2586. Follow her on Twitter @PGPattiZarling.
This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Man reunites with lifeguard who saved him drowning at Manitowoc YMCA
