Some Montgomery County Boy Scouts and those who taught them their survival skills should be proud of their actions.

By Melissa Brooks
Times Chronicle
Oct. 24, 2007

Members of a local Boy Scout troop carried an injured woman about three miles to safety on a stretcher they constructed with tree branches and sweatshirts Oct. 20.

The Scouts and their leaders had stopped to eat lunch during a hike on Blue Mountain in northern Berks County when they spotted a woman staggering.
Chris Gallagher, Troop 226 Scoutmaster and Cheltenham Township police officer, said they caught up with Jane B. Scholl, 41, of Mohnton, Pa., on the narrow, rocky trail.
Scholl, who was hiking with a friend, fell when she was looking for a good spot to take pictures at the Pinnacle, a popular overlook.
According to Gallagher she attempted to continue hiking another six miles to her car. "There was no way," he said. "She couldn't even walk straight."
Gallagher, also a Cheltenham EMT and volunteer firefighter, said Scholl was bleeding from the face. He and Scout leader Andy Swartz, a Cheltenham Township paramedic and volunteer firefighter, examined Scholl and found she had slurred speech, was dizzy and confused - all classic head injury symptoms, Gallagher said.
Gallagher considered himself "lucky" to have a cell phone signal on the mountain. He dialed 911 while the older Scouts helped Scholl to an area where she could sit down.
After calling for help, Gallagher caught up with the troop and found they had already made a stretcher, he said, something they learned to earn First Aid merit badges.
Swartz's son, Andrew, 17, an Abington High School student who just became an Eagle Scout; Bill Bowman, 14, a Cheltenham High School student; and Gallagher's daughter, Megan, 14, a CHS student and member of Venturing Crew, a youth development program of the Boy Scouts of America, found two big tree limbs, about 6-feet-long by 4-inches-thick, to serve as poles for the stretcher. The Scouts took off their sweatshirts and fed the sleeves for Scholl's body to rest on.
Swartz said his younger son, Nicholas, 13, walked ahead to a landing zone with Scholl's friend and a cell phone to meet paramedics and a fire crew while the rest of the Scouts took turns carrying Scholl two and a half miles.
According to Gallagher, Scholl kept saying she wanted to sleep so the teens talked to her to keep her awake during the 45-minute walk to the medevac helicopter.
"They've treated cuts and fractures before but never carried anyone like this," he said.
Scholl was flown to Reading Hospital, where she was treated for a concussion and cuts and bruises and released Oct. 21.
A fanfare of fellow Scouts, Rockledge and Cheltenham police officers and Cheltenham, Second Alarmers and Burholme EMS welcomed the group back to the troop's headquarters, St. Timothy's Lutheran Church in Philadelphia. The troop's drum and bugle corps played.
Gallagher's wife and Megan's mother, Kaye, leader of the troop's Venturing Crew, said, "They work hard on their merit badges and to be able to implement those skills out in the field like that, it's incredible."
Gallagher said the Boy Scouts of America are aware of the troop's rescue efforts and are determining how they will be honored.
"The kids were amazing," he said. "Nothing they were asked to do was too much. It made me feel very proud."