CHATSWORTH : Scouts to Honor 5 for Saving Hiker

On the day after Independence Day last year, Bruce Faunce found something in addition to the nation’s founding to celebrate.

His life.

Faunce, 61, of Chatsworth suffered a heart attack during a Boy Scout hike on a steep trail near Kernville, about 50 miles northeast of Bakersfield.

But due to quick action by Boy Scout staff members, Faunce, who was on the hike with his scoutmaster son, received medical attention in time. He has fully recovered.

“It was a turn in my life,” Faunce said. “I’ve kept a log. This is the 214th day of my new life.”

Tonight, the Western Los Angeles County Council of the Boy Scouts of America will honor the five staff members who helped make that new life possible.

The five--Alex Sanchez of Kernville, Lon Anderson of Camarillo, Clint Weir of Agua Dulce, Joseph Hastie of Canoga Park and Kevin Street of Woodland Hills--will each receive a Certificate of Merit at the council’s annual recognition banquet at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Granada Hills.

“I felt in safe hands with the Scouts,” said Faunce, who has been involved with the Boy Scouts for more than 50 years.

Faunce had gone with a troop from Northridge Middle School to spend a week at Camp Whitsett.

Shortly before 5 a.m. on July 5, the group set out on a 1 1/2-mile hike to Sentinel Peak to watch the sunrise. Faunce, who had no history of heart trouble, was feeling fine.

“He was singing songs when he got up,” said his son, Tom Faunce.

Added his father: “I’ve been up that mountain many times before.”

But as he neared the peak, Bruce Faunce started to feel weak. His muscles tightened in his neck. He was forced to rest.

Hastie, 15, rushed to the campsite to wake up Street and Anderson, who reached Faunce in about 20 minutes.

“He was more pale than he should have been,” said Street, 21, a student at Pierce College in Woodland Hills.

Weir and other staff members then brought a basket-style stretcher up the hill to carry Faunce back. They took turns in the difficult task of getting him down the treacherous trail.

Faunce was taken by ambulance to a hospital at nearby Lake Isabella and later transferred to a hospital in Bakersfield.

“I was told by a doctor that if the Scouts hadn’t acted so quickly, he wouldn’t have lived,” Tom Faunce said.