six-year old pulls her friend from path of car

SUSSEX COUNTY-Governing bodies regularly hand out certificates and proclamations and other awards, most of which never get reported in the media. But the one that the Sussex Mayor Katherine Little presented to Cassidy Schrope at last week's council meeting was noteworthy. The presentation was a "Recognition of Merit for Outstanding Bravery" awarded for actions that saved a small child from possible serious injury. The hero is six years old. Cassidy, whose parents did not want her to be interviewed, snatched a three-year-old girl from the path of a car seconds before it crashed into a storefront window. The incident took place around 5 p.m. Monday, Jan. 10 just after Cassidy, her twin brother Nicholas, and their mother, Jill Schrope, were leaving the karate school located in Wantage Plaza. Accompanying them were family friends Mike Sarapuchiello and his two children, five-year-old Derek and three-year-old Kyla. The group was planning to walk to a restuarant in the plaza for dinner and were waiting for Sarapuchiello's wife, Christina, who had gone to her car to get money, to join them. While they were waiting, Jill Schrope turned her attention to a display in a quilt shop's window. "All of a sudden I heard a car accelerating so loud, and by the time I turned to the left, I saw the car going through the Speed Shop," said Schrope. "I quickly counted the kids and saw that everyone was okay." What she didn't immediately know, because she had her back to the scene, was that the reason everyone was okay was because of the quick thinking of her daughter, Cassidy, who had been standing with Kyla in front of the Speed Shop right before the accident. But Christina Sarapuchiello, who was walking towards Kyla and Cassidy from her car, saw it all. "I was about ten feet away from the girls, and my husband heard me scream, ‘Mike!' He had his back towards the girls," said Christina Sarapuchiello. "Casssidy reached in and grabbed Kyla and spun her around at arms length to pull her out of the way seconds before the car went through the window." When Schrope asked her daughter if what Christina said was true, Cassidy replied, "Yes, the car was coming at me." Not much was said afterwards Schrope said, as her daughter was very scared and almost in shock. "Not only did she pull [Kyla] away, but she covered her up," Shrope said. "It's amazing that a six-year-old could do that." A police report could not be obtained, but eyewitnesses said that the driver of the car was a male approximately 17 years old in a 1989 Honda Civic CRX. Ambulances arrived at the scene, but no one was hurt. According to accounts, there was no apparent reason for the accident, and no one working in the shop came out afterwards to see if the pedestrians were okay. "Nobody was able to get to my daughter, and I was only three feet away. I am so grateful that Cassidy was there," said Mike Sarapuchiello. Cassidy, who is a Daisy in the Girl Scouts, was due to receive another award today from her peers.