Sixteen-year-old lifeguard Ryder Williams will visit the White House and receive recognition for his heroic rescue at a Santa Cruz beach. Photo: Santa Cruz Now//instagram
The 16-year-old Santa Cruz, California lifeguard whose ocean rescue received millions of views online is scheduled to visit the White House today, Monday, August 17. Ryder Williams, received the invitation on social media from President Donald Trump after he saved a 10-year-old boy at Seabright State Beach on July 25.
Three days after the rescue, Trump announced that he’d invite Williams and the boy he rescued to the White House, bestowing Williams with a “high civilian honor.”
Williams released a public statement via California State Parks saying he was “grateful to have had the opportunity to return the child to his family safely.”
“This is my job and I love what I do,” Williams said. “I’m thankful to my fellow lifeguards who perform rescues just like this every day.”
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The father of the child who Williams rescued said he didn’t think his son would have survived much longer had Williams not been able to hold on to him.
The rescue, captured on video by Santa Cruz resident Scott Vander Dussen, occurred during a series of late-July south swells that struck the California coast. Williams grasped the boy as walls of whitewash repeatedly pounded them in the shorebreak. Several bystanders tried to help, but they nearly got swept in, too. Eventually, with the help of fellow lifeguard Aaron Bohnen, the child was brought to shore and survived the harrowing ordeal.
