Royal Canadian Humane Association honours former CamBay Mounties for their bravery

RCMP members Dave Brown and Greg Redl stand with Katie Anavilok and her sons Andrew Anavilok and Alexander Anavilok on Oct. 19, 2010 in Cambridge Bay’s Luke Novoligak community centre where the two members were honoured for quick action on July 9, 2010 which saved seven-year old Andrew from drowning. (FILE PHOTO)

Two RCMP members who rescued a seven-year-old boy from drowning two years ago were honoured earlier this month in Toronto, the RCMP said June 20.

Cst. David Brown and Cst. Greg Redl attended a June 5 awards ceremony organized by the Royal Canadian Humane Association at Government House in Toronto.

There, the two received bravery awards presented by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.

Redl received a bronze medal and Brown an honorary testimonial.

These awards stem from an incident the two were involved with in Cambridge Bay in the summer of 2010.

That’s when Andrew Analivok, then seven years old, fell off the community dock in Cambridge Bay into 10 feet of near-freezing water.

It happened around 12:30 a.m. on July 9 when another child accidentally knocked Analivok off the dock and into the water.

Stunned by extreme cold, he fell into an immediate state of shock, lapsed into unconsciousness and sank to the bottom.

Alerted by passerby Allen Maniyogina that a young boy had fallen into the water at the community’s main dock, Redl and Brown raced down from the RCMP detachment to the shore.

There, Redl told Nunatsiaq News in 2010 that he hoped to find a young boy dog-paddling in the frigid water.

Instead, kids were crying on the dock. As he looked down through the clear water, Redl saw the still form of a young boy on the bottom, about 10 feet down.

Throwing off his heavy-weight duty belt, Redl jumped in — still fully dressed with his boots on — dove down to fetch the young boy off the seabed, and towed him to shore.

On shore, Brown flung the boy over his shoulder, put him in the RCMP truck and rushed him to the health centre, with Redl following close behind.

Medical personnel had not yet arrived at the health centre so Brown began immediately administering CPR to the boy on the stairs of the building with Redl joining him in the resuscitation attempt.

The two continued there, noting that the boy was able to expel some water, and appeared — finally — to have a weak pulse.

A midwife looking over at the centre from the nurse’s residence noticed them on the steps and came to open the centre’s door for them.

Soon, nurses and a doctor arrived, worked on Anavilok— and “the word was good,” Redl remembered.

Redl went back home, changed his uniform and headed back to work with Brown.

Anavilok eventually made a full recovery, and, in October 2010, people in Cambridge Bay thronged the Luke Novoligak community centre to tell the two RCMP members how much they appreciated their quick, live-saving actions.