A ceremony is planned at the Small Point-Adam’s Cove town hall in Conception Bay North this weekend to recognize the heroic actions of two people who last summer rescued a little girl who was drifting out toward the open ocean on a floatie.

Barbara Watson and Tim Hayes jumped into action when they heard the commotion on Broad Cove beach last August 2.

The local beach has become more popular in recent years as a destination to beat the heat of a hot summer’s day.

Watson says the little girl was on a blow-up raft with a back on it that the wind caught like a sail, and she was drifting at alarming speed out into the open ocean.

Knowing they could never catch up to her by swimming out, she and Hayes drove out to the point on an ATV, and scravelled over the bank, where as luck would have it, she drifted toward.

There was a rocky piece of land jutting out into the bay before she reached the open ocean. They managed to grab the child who Watson says “was absolutely hysterical.”

Watson and Hayes, who lost their summer footwear after sliding down over the bank, then realized they didn’t have a way to get back up. Amazingly, local residents formed a human chain to get the child, Watson and Hayes back over the steep embankment.

She says they each lifted the child up over the bank to her anxious parents waiting at the top. “I don’t think I could ever have got back up over that hill without the help of these people.”

Watson and Hayes are being recognized with Canadian Red Cross Rescuer Awards this Sunday at noon. In the meantime, Watson, who is from Ontario and purchased the old Blackhead Church to run as accommodations, says she’s planning a fundraiser at the old church this summer to purchase equipment for a rescue station for the beach with rope and life preservers.

You can hear the full interview on News Talk this afternoon at 4 p.m.