Homeschool Heroes: Meet the Grouse Mountain Chairlift Rescuers

While enjoying a day of skiing at North Vancouver’s Grouse Mountain in British Columbia, five homeschool teens turned into heroes by rescuing an 8-year-old boy who was precariously dangling from a chairlift.

Upon seeing the boy desperately being held by his father, Joshua Ravensbergen, Gabriel Neilson, James MacDonald, Ethan Harvey, and Sam North immediately jumped into action.

“Everyone was sort of just standing around looking up at this poor kid,” MacDonald told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. “I said to the lady next to me, he’s not going to be able to hold on for much longer because he was struggling.”

Together, the teenagers rigged up a length of out-of-bounds netting and pulled it taut to catch the boy. They also removed a mat that was wrapped around a pole to cushion the fall. The hardest part, though, was convincing the scared child to kick off his skis and jump.

“At one point, we were just like, ‘OK, you need to trust us. You just need to drop,’” Neilson told Global News.

According to reports, the boy made it through the incident unharmed. As a reward, each boy received season passes to the ski resort, as well as international attention.

“I got in the car the other day with my dad and then we turned on the radio and they're talking about it,” Harvey said. “I don't think I realized how many people have seen it and how big it is. It's pretty insane.”