Youth honored by Fillmore council for good deed

Cousins Kip Maynard, 7, and Christen Doan, 10, recently lent assistance to 62-year-old Marilyn Terhune when she fell and injured herself on a Fillmore street.

FILLMORE -- When Marilyn Terhune found herself in need of help recently, she had no choice but to depend on the kindness of strangers.

Two very young strangers.

Terhune, 62, was walking on Hendrickson Street on May 30 when she lost her balance, tripped and fell, hitting her head on the pavement. Unable to get back on her feet, she laid in the road for a time, cars whizzing past her.

"I just fell in the street," Terhune said. "I managed to sit up, but I couldn't get up. I just sat there with blood dripping down my face."

As adults ignored her, two children -- cousins Christen Doan, 10, and Kip Maynard, 7 -- noticed Terhune's plight and came to her aid.

"Two cars went past," said Doan. "One of them yelled a her to get out of the way and honked at her, and the other one just swerved around her."

Terhune's grandson Randy Terhune, 10, saw what was going on. He asked Doan and Maynard to sit with his grandmother while he went to get his father Wes.

"That little girl just kept talking to me," Terhune said. "I can understand, in this day and age, why adults may not have stopped ... they probably thought I was drunk or doped up. But these kids ... they realized something was really wrong, and they stopped to help."

The experience was a real eye-opener for Doan, a fifth-grader at Tzouanakis Intermediate School.

"It made me feel like nobody cared about anybody else these days," she said. "People need to help others and stop just thinking about themselves 24-7."

Doan and Maynard immediately noticed Terhune had blood on her head and hands. The children were on their way to the park when they saw Terhune in the road.

"She was just sitting in the road," Doan said.

For their efforts in assisting Terhune, Doan and Maynard were given Outstanding Citizenship Awards by the Fillmore Town Council.

"(The award certificate) says, 'for helping those in need when others would not,'" Doan said.

Maynard, a second-grader at Fillmore Elementary School, said the award made him "feel good."

Terhune is happy Doan and Maynard were publicly recognized.

"I really felt like they needed some kind of recognition," she said. "I was just amazed at how much they helped me and how that little girl just took charge."