Two Garden Route NSRI volunteers, Alta Haschick of Mossel Bay and Donald Olivier of George, are finalists in this year’s Centrum Guardian Project, which recognises emergency services heroes who put their lives at risk to save others.

Haschick and Olivier were called out to the Great Brak River mouth on September 24 last year where nine schoolchildren from Brakpan in Gauteng were swept out to sea by a strong rip current after their mini-rubber ducks capsized.

Olivier, who works for a bank, arrived within minutes and set off to help the teenagers.

“It was an overcast day and the wind was strong. I remember coming up from that first wave and gasping for air. The water was cold.”

Olivier, 37, joined the NSRI six years ago.

He said the current swirled in circles and swept him past the children on his first attempt. He found calmer waters on a sandbank, although it was too deep to stand. He then set out to get a boy 20m from him and took him ashore.

Another boy was hanging onto an oar 80m offshore and once Olivier reached him, they made for the sandbank.

“The tide was going out and we were pulled back into the current. He looked at me and said ‘Oom, I can’t anymore’ and I realised he would not be able to hold on much longer. I had no option but to put my head down and swim hard. Through God’s grace we managed to make it to shore.”

Haschick, 41, who owns a beauty salon and horse riding school, said she was shocked when she arrived at the scene.

“It was quite horrific. You don’t expect to see so many children in difficulty in the water at once.”

She said although the ocean was turbulent, she “didn’t think twice” and headed straight in.

“I just remember I was more under the water than on top. The waves just kept coming over my head.”

Haschick, who joined the NSRI three years ago, reached a child who was face-down in the water. She tried to do CPR but was tumbled by a huge wave and the boy slipped out of his life jacket.

He was one of three children, aged 16 and 17, who drowned that day.

NSRI Wilderness station commander Hennie Niehaus said: “I think for a volunteer, who has his or her own work to do, and who goes out and saves lives, putting himself in danger, takes a special kind of person.”

Centrum Guardian said the two were nominated for “acting selflessly and bravely, concerned only for the welfare of the people in distress”.

By Janine Oelofse

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