Teens who helped rescue mom, kids pinned under car surprised with Utah Jazz tickets, merchandise
Dec 12, 2023, 10:13 AM | Updated: 3:17 pm
The Jazz Bear and Utah Jazz President Jim Olson with students from Layton Christian Academy and Andrew Ponson, the father and husband of family affected by incident. (Photo courtesy: Utah Jazz)
(Photo courtesy: Utah Jazz)
SALT LAKE CITY — Layton Christian Academy students who helped rescue a mother and her children after they were pinned underneath a car were given tickets to an upcoming Utah Jazz game and merchandise for their heroic actions.
Representatives from the Jazz — including team mascot Jazz Bear and president Jim Olson — and SeatGeek surprised the teens with the tickets at an assembly on Monday.
“These students at Layton Christian Academy and Airman Childress demonstrated an incredible act of service to our community and displayed courage and tenacity in running to help the Ponson family in their moment of crisis,” Olson said. “It’s important to recognize acts of incredible community service, so on behalf of everyone in this community, the Jazz and our partners at SeatGeek want to express our gratitude to these individuals for their quick action. We look forward to hosting them soon.”
School officials said a driver was temporarily blinded by sunlight and ran over Bridgette Ponson and her two children last week in the school’s parking lot.
Surveillance cameras captured approximately 20 teens running out and surrounding the car to lift it up. One of Ponson’s children was able to escape by herself before Dominique Childress, a senior airman from Hill Air Force Base who was picking up his kids, helped pull Ponson and her other child to safety.
Childress said he was the one in uniform, but the students deserve the credit for saving Ponson and her children.
“They are the purest form of the word hero and they deserve every single bit of praise and worship that they’ve gotten because what they did was not easy for a teenager to do,” he said.
Ponson and her children were able to get immediate medical attention and are recovering from the incident. A GoFundMe* has been set up to help her family with medical expenses.
The teens will attend the Jazz’s Dec. 30 game against the Miami Heat. They also received merchandise “as a gift of thanks on behalf of the greater Jazz community,” the team said.
*KSL TV does not assure that the money deposited to the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering a deposit to the account, you should consult your own advisors and otherwise proceed at your own risk.
