Who said kids didn't learn anything watching television?Five-year-old Andrew Gentile can't recall much of what happened to him on Saturday, but he remembers this: "I was drowning."Amazing an 8-year-old pulled them both up.
His neighbor Reese Ronceray, 8, learned how to swim at Centenary College, and more importantly, learned to save a drowning boy's life by watching "SpongeBob SquarePants."
Gentile and Ronceray were attending a private party for families of students on school bus driver John Hey's route to the Benedict A. Cucinella School. Hey befriended the late Jack Borgenicht years ago, and his widow, Fran Borgenicht, allows the families to go fishing and swim in the big manmade lake on the Borgenicht property. About 40 families were there Saturday.
Shirley Gentile, during an interview at the Ronceray house Wednesday, said she thought the water was shallow where she allowed Andrew to enter the water to get to shore, only six feet away.
Andrew Gentile struggled, though, because the lake was six feet deep there, and his feet couldn't touch bottom. He splashed and struggled, prompting his mother to jump in, but she too couldn't feel the lake's floor and panicked.
Reese Ronceray, who was on shore, didn't hesitate when he saw the drowning boy.
"I just saw and then I just knew how to react, I jumped in," said Ronceray, who swam the short distance and grabbed Andrew, mimicking something he had seen on an episode of the cartoon show.
"The hardest part was when we both went under, getting us back up to the surface," Ronceray said as he sat next to Andrew in the Ronceray home. The families live four doors apart on Arrow Head Drive.
Anne Ronceray, Reese's mom, also saw what was happening.
"The next thing, Reese comes back up, he had (Andrew's) head in his arms, and he swam back to shore with him," Anne Ronceray said.
This isn't the first time SpongeBob has been a lifesaver.
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