Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org
Surnames: Magnuson, Morrow, Cloninger, Erickson
----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 10/26/2011
Magnuson, Ashley (Life-Saving Award - 2011)
Ashley Magnuson was presented the Bronze Cross award by the Girl Scouts during last Wednesday’s ceremony. (Contributed photo)
By Tony Opelt
A Neillsville Girl Scout was honored last Wednesday, Oct 19, for saving her sisters’ lives earlier this year.
Ashley was given the Bronze Cross for saving her two little sisters’ lives and putting her own life in danger.
Sixth-grader Ashley Magnuson was waiting with her sisters at a bus stop on a foggy day last winter. When the bus arrived, a car behind it was forced to dodge around the bus to avoid rear-ending it and was heading for the girls.
Ashley then shoved her sisters out of the way, and barely jumped out of the way herself.
Magnuson described the situation, “I heard, like, this weird noise, and then I pushed my sisters. One of them landed into a seat and another one went like this, really hard, and then my one knee was on the bus and one was underneath the bus.”
Ashley received some cuts and bruises for her bravery, but her sisters were unharmed. Magnuson received her Bronze Cross during a special ceremony at the Neillsville Middle School multimedia room. The Bronze Cross is a very special, unique and rare award that has been a part of the Girl Scout Program since the start of the movement and is given for saving a life or attempting to save a life with risk to the candidate’s own life.
Girl Scout lifesaving awards, as part of the Girl Scout program, are given to registered Girl Scouts (not adults) that display heroism or risk to their own lives and who have performed heroic acts beyond the degree of maturity and training to be expected at their age.
The Bronze Cross itself is a medal that cannot be purchased by rather is awarded after review by GSUSA in New York. Ashley’s story was submitted by Judy Morrow, Girl Scout volunteer, and approved quickly thereafter. “The medal was sent to the Girl Scout office in Eau Claire along with a congratulatory letter hand-signed by Kathy Cloninger, CEO of GSUSA.
The award was presented to Magnuson by Morrow and Renee Erickson, community development manager for Girl Scouts of the Northwestern Great Lakes.
