As a school bus driver, Mebal Kaanyi has to pay attention.
So when she was driving her afternoon bus route last week for Roseville Area Schools, she noticed a four-year-old boy running down the street crying. He didn’t appear to have parents with him and was barefoot with no sweatshirt, she said.
“He crossed that Owasso Boulevard, as busy as it was, and went to the other side of the road and on that side, it’s a lake – Lake Owasso,” Kaanyi, of Shoreview, said.
Despite fencing by the lake, Kaanyi said the gate must not have been latched and the boy was able to make it to the water where he fell in.
“Of course, even me, I was terrified on entering the water because I do not know how to swim,” she said. “I’ve never done that in my whole life so I was afraid to follow him, but still, something kept on pushing me – ‘You need to save that kid because if you don’t save him, nobody’s going to know he’s in there.”
Kaanyi, a Shoreview resident, got into the water and though the boy was struggling, he pushed himself toward her, allowing her to then grab his hand and pull him from the lake, she said.
People driving by who saw the rescue offered to bring Kaanyi towels for the boy, who was soaking wet and shaking. Kaanyi, who had called her work dispatch to request police, waited with the boy until first responders arrived.
The Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office contacted Kaanyi the next day to thank her and let her know that the boy had been reunited with his parents, she said. A spokesperson with the sheriff’s office confirmed on Tuesday the boy’s reunion with his parents.
On Tuesday, Kaanyi was recognized for her actions with a $1,000 check from Sheletta Brundidge, through Brundidge’s company ShelettaMakesMeLaugh.com, a podcast network and promotions company based in Cottage Grove.
Brundidge for about the last two years has traveled to different parts of the country providing free interior keyless door locks to parents to help keep their children from wandering, like the child Kaanyi rescued. She travels to cities where children have wandered away and drowned and estimates she’s spent around $30,000 to $40,000 on locks for parents that can’t afford them, she said. When she heard about Kaanyi’s rescue of the boy, she wanted to surprise her.
“Here we are, just letting her know what a hero she is and how amazing it is that she saved this child,” Brundidge said.
Children with autism are more prone to wander, something Brundidge has experienced with her own son, who is autistic.
“I like to say I’m just a mama with a mouth on a mission to help other parents because I don’t want any mother to have to bury her child,” Brundidge said. “And so it’s my job to make sure that the awareness is made, that the awards are handed out, that the locks are given away.”
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Kaanyi, who is a single mother, said she plans to save the money she received on Tuesday to support her 9-year-old daughter.
“It’s just telling people out there to always do you — be you, and do you. Never look at color, race, something like that. Just do what your heart tells you,” Kaanyi said. “Do good things and people should treat each other, one another with kindness. That day it will be that kid, next time it will be me, my daughter. You know, you don’t need to help somebody with you expecting to get something in return. Just do you.”
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