MOGANTOWN — It’s ordinary people doing extraordinary things said Michael Yura, president of the Cheat Lake Rotary. Tuesday at Lakeview the organization took the time to honor the heroism of two brothers who helped a woman after she drove her car over a hill near Cheat Lake.
Eddie and Andrew Emery recounted the events of that cold morning, and remained humble as they received an award for their random act of selflessness.
Andrew said after his brother had alerted him to the situation the brothers pulled off and preceded over the hill, following the wreckage and the broken tree limbs. They went as far as they could to observe the situation. They saw the woman sticking out of the car calling for help.
They helped her out of her car to a rock – they had already called 911 and waited with her, offering her their jackets to keep her warm. They stayed with her until a boat came from the other side of the lake and transported her across. Andrew said they helped put her on the stretcher and into an ambulance.
When the Cheat Lake Rotary heard the story of what happened that fateful Monday morning, they felt it was right to give the brothers some recognition.
“We had never done anything like this before in terms of heroism, but we felt that it epitomized one of our major belief systems for rotary and that is service above self,” said Yura.
The Rotary meets Tuesdays at Lakeview and when they saw the headline the day after the accident it became a major topic of conversation. Yura drove by where the incident had occurred and someone else had mentioned that this was such a special thing that they did and they should find a way to honor the men who may have saved her life.
“It was a prime example of what we believe, and these are not Rotarians. These are just great guys who did a public service in saving someone,” said Yura.
Yura said the Rotary are strong believers in being a community person and putting yourself out for others. He said he would describe the brothers as unselfish – they saw a critical situation and did what they had to do.
“Thank God they saw what they saw, to have to ability to see something, not think about it. It was just that they put themselves in a potentially dangerous situation. They didn’t know what they were getting into,” said Yura.
Yura said he hopes people can look at what these brothers did and let it carry over into their everyday lives. Even small things can have a big impact on the world. He used the example of Rotary taking on Polio, and today with Rotary’s efforts Polio has nearly been eradicated from the world.
“It can act like a ripple in the water, where one act can lead to other people thinking about something and about little things that they can do to help someone else. When you have enough ripples you can change the world,” said Yura.
However, the brothers remain humble, and really don’t consider themselves heroes.
“No, I don’t believe we’re heroes. Concerned citizens maybe. People doing the right thing when they should, when the timing’s there for them. Heroes are firefighters, police officers, people that do it every single day and don’t get any recognition” said Andrew.
“Soldiers, teachers, medical professions – those are our heroes in our eyes.”
