Girl Scouts of the USA has awarded the prestigious Medal of Honor to Katelyn Ibarra, a 16-year-old Girl Scout from Steamboat Springs, for saving numerous lives after a city bus crashed. On March 29, 2016, Katelyn and her family were on their way to eat dinner when they came upon a city bus that had crashed on U.S. Highway 40 near CR 44. The roads were very slick and icy from a snowstorm earlier in the day. As soon as Katelyn saw the crash, she knew she had to help. After climbing up a slippery, muddy slope to reach the front of the bus, Katelyn climbed through the broken windshield and into the bus. Without hesitation, she helped the bus driver and numerous passengers, many of whom were in shock, bleeding, or had other serious injuries.
Tracy Shelton, an Ibarra family friend, was among those on bus. “She (Katelyn) needed no direction or instruction. She immediately went over to one of the most severely hurt. The blood didn’t faze her. She showed no shock. She was just this ‘strength’ among us,” wrote Shelton in a letter to Girl Scouts of the USA. “She responded in a way that was clearly above her age. She showed such a high level of maturity. I know adults that would not have climbed into that bus, with people screaming and all the blood.”
Girl Scouts of the USA awards the Medal of Honor for “saving life or attempting to save life without risk to the candidate’s own life.” In March, Katie Hurley of Northglenn, Colo. was awarded the Medal of Honor for saving her mother’s life after her glucose levels dropped to a life-threatening level.
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