Nabiha Azmi was feeling upbeat as she headed to school to write a test on a December morning when things took a frightening turn.
A younger girl was struck by a car at a nearby intersection. It was still dark outside, and her father rushed to the victim. Meanwhile, Nabiha, who was then 15, dialed 911.
Nabiha followed the instructions of the operator to keep bystanders out of traffic while asking drivers on the scene to turn on their hazard lights.
She also translated patient care instructions to her dad and others tending to the child, and provided the 911 operator with detailed information to ensure emergency services were dispatched to the scene as quickly as possible.
“I was completely shocked,” Nabiha said of the award.
“I didn’t realize that I had done something that was worthy of being recognized — I thought I did what anybody in that situation who needed to do something, that’s what they would do, right?”
Joelle Mendoza was with her father and brother one afternoon when she noticed a woman dressed in pink outside her front porch. “I thought that, like, she was hiding from someone,” she said. “I’ve seen so many shows about it.”
Her dad went to check on the woman after telling 12-year-old Joelle to call 911 — a difficult task for the girl who had been struggling with anxiety for more than a year.
“I tried not to cry because I was like, ‘Oh, my goodness, what’s going on?’ ” she said. She still doesn’t know where she got the courage to remain calm while speaking to the operator. Maybe it was the homework she had been doing before or her little brother who was crying.
“I was like, ‘OK, so we have to focus on him and then focus on other things,’ ” she said.
Calgary 911 deputy chief Glenda Sahlen applauded the youths, who displayed courage amid challenging situations.
“The ability to remain composed during stressful situations is a quality that sets these young heroes apart — they faced fires, traffic collisions, fights, intoxicated drivers and people being trapped, and yet, in the face of these overwhelming situations, they exhibited an unwavering calmness that ensured accurate and timely information could be gathered by the emergency communications officers at 911,” Sahlen said.
Mayor Jyoti Gondek also celebrated the young heroes, saying, “We couldn’t ask for better ways to celebrate how amazing this young generation is with this type of event.”
Acts of bravery by the honoured youths include:
- Mauricio Olivares, 14, helped locate the source of smoke coming from a small grass fire that was spreading quickly directly against the side of the Glenmore Inn and alerted emergency staffers.
- Qai Alrefaai, 13, called emergency operators and told them about a smell emanating from a dryer in the basement, a call that helped prevent a house fire.
- Friends Shae Craig, 12, Cassidy VanDerMeulen, 12, and Bella Bealing, 13, informed the authorities of a vehicle collision that required a response from the police, fire and ambulance services.
- Yaseen Farag, 10, found a three-year-old who was lost and crying on a road. Farag called 911 and provided a detailed description of the child while keeping the child calm and safe. An adult bystander stopped to help, and Farag kept control of the scene and let the adult bystander know that he had called 911 and that the police were on their way.
- While out for a drive with his dad, Zayan saw a fire on a balcony of a large apartment complex, and called 911 and provided detailed information to the officer.
- Abem Woldu, 11, woke up and noticed a gas smell in her home. She told her family about the smell and called the emergency help line. She ensured the officers had their address, described where the odour was coming from, helped translate information for her mom, and safely evacuated her family outside to wait for firefighters.