Memorial Day parades honor military heroes from distant times and places. At Round Lake Beach’s 1996 Memorial Day Parade, however, the hero wasn’t a military memory; he was a boy in the crowd.
Steven Villegas, then 13, was standing on the sidewalk, waiting for the parade to start, when a pickup truck hit a car in front of him. The car jumped the curb and went 30 feet forward into a parade viewing area, where it hit four Libertyville children–Courtney and Chris Elias, who were pinned under the still-running car, and their sisters, Alisha and Jennifer.
While a group of adults lifted the front of the car, Villegas, a Boy Scout from Troop 273 in Round Lake who had received his First Aid Merit Badge the month before, crawled under the car and helped pull the severely injured children to safety.
“I could hear shouts and ran to where the accident happened,” he said. “There were a couple of kids pinned under a car. I could hear them screaming. I got down on my hands and knees, saw where they were and what could be done. I tried lifting the car but wasn’t strong enough. About 10 adults lifted the car, and I got down on my knees and pulled the kids out with the adults helping.”
For this act of lifesaving heroism, he received the Boy Scouts of America’s Honor Medal last year. In October he also received a citation from the City of Round Lake Beach at a recognition dinner.
On March 11, the 14-year-old 9th grader from Round Lake High School received an even more prestigious honor. He went to Washington, D.C., where he was one of two Boy Scouts who visited the White House and presented President Clinton (honorary Boy Scout chairman) with the Boy Scouts’ Annual Report. Villegas also visited Congress and laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
“I didn’t think that I would be the type of person selected to go,” said Villegas, chosen by a group of national Boy Scout executives after a February telephone interview. “I didn’t think that it was an act of superheroism. My head was just under the car for a couple of seconds while I held on to the kids and dragged them out. Other adults were more prominently involved. I am really surprised.”
That’s not how 8-year-old Chris Elias, rescued by Villegas, recalls what happened.
“I remember the car hitting us, being sucked under and how hot it was under the car,” said Chris, who was admitted to Condell Memorial Hospital in Libertyville with first-, second- and third-degree burns and bruising of the brain, all of which he has recovered from. “The tailpipe on my back felt very bad.
“I couldn’t even see Steven because there was so much smoke,” he added. “I felt his hands touching mine and pulling me from under the car. I can’t begin to tell you how I felt.”
The accident also injured three of Chris’ sisters. Alisha, who is fine now, was taken by ambulance to Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge with a lacerated liver, collapsed lung and head injury.
“Not many kids would go underneath a car that was running to help other kids,” said Shurrill Elias of Libertyville, mother of the rescued children. “If Steven hadn’t been there, it would have been much worse. He definitely deserves this honor.”
“There was lots of confusion and emotion as the adults realized that they couldn’t pull the boy out,” added Round Lake Beach Police Chief Ed Sindles, who was at the parade and nominated Villegas for the city award. “Steven just jumped in without anyone asking him to.”
“I don’t quite know how I did it,” Villegas responded. “If I wasn’t a Scout, I could have helped the children, but I don’t know how much I would have,” because he wouldn’t have had the skill or knowledge.
Villegas is the first Scout selected from the Northeast Illinois Council to take the report to the White House, said Bob Russell, council executive. He was chosen from a pool of about 20,000 Scouts who received lifesaving awards nationwide last year.
“He is a model Scout,” said Gus Weinreis, Villegas’ scoutmaster. “He’s respectful, courteous and pitches in without being asked.”
Villegas started in Scouting in the 1st grade as a Tiger Cub at the Field School in Wheeling, where he lived then. Currently, he is an assistant senior patrol leader and about five merit badges shy of attaining the rank of Eagle Scout.
Last summer he worked on two different Boy Scout service projects. With one, he assisted the Round Lake Park District summer camp by helping stage a Wilderness Survival Program showing area children how to build outdoor shelters and start a fire to protect themselves in the rain.
Villegas’ award is having a “very positive” impact on local Scouting, said former Lake County State’s Atty. Fred Foreman of Gurnee. Foreman is chairman of the North Star District, which includes Villegas’ troop. “Our numbers have improved over the past year,” Foreman said. He estimated that the district has had a 6 percent increase in membership after publicity following the rescue.
Villegas’ award isn’t the only recent honor for the Northeast Illinois Council, which includes the Round Lake Beach Troop. (The council has 16,000 Scouts in 300 units and 3,000 adult volunteers. It runs from the northern Chicago city limits to the Wisconsin state line and includes Lake County and northeast Cook County.)
The council is one of only three of 85 in the Midwestern Region to have been designated a Quality Council for all 13 years of the award’s existence, said Russell, the area executive. Nationwide, only 15 councils of the 320 total hold that record.
A “quality council” achieves certain standards, such as at least 50 percent of Scouts advancing at least one rank a year; 50 percent having attended a camp and also camped outside at least 10 days and nights; and more than 50 percent of the volunteer adult leadership having received training at leadership workshops.
“I would liken it to a sports team that has 13 consecutive winning seasons,” said Ely Brewer, Scout executive of the Mid-Iowa Council, which also has received the award all 13 years. “That’s how difficult it is.”
“This is a very prestigious award,” said Ron Hegwood, Boy Scout Central Region director. “Their summer camps are equal to the best in the country. They are noted for the quality of their program. They are noted for their recruiting efforts.”
The Northeast Illinois Council won’t have to recruit very hard for Chris Elias, rescued in the Round Lake Beach accident.
Said Chris, who is looking to join a neighborhood Cub Scout Pack soon, “I want to be a Cub Scout because I want to be like the Boy Scout who helped me. I want to save people too.”
