School employee rescues
resident from icy stream
BY LARRY RAMER
Staff Writer

MARLBORO — Quick thinking and bravery on the part of Marlboro Middle School custodian Vernon Benjamin saved the life of a township resident on Dec. 7.

Mitchell Newman and his neighbor Bruce Bzura were walking their dogs on the school property off Route 520 when the dogs wandered down a snow-covered hill to a stream on a remote part of the school property.

Newman said Bzura was able to get his dog out of the water, but said his dog, Bailey, a black Lab, was trapped in the stream.

"It looked like there wasn’t much of a way to get to (Bailey). He tried to get out, but the ice pulled him down until he was right back in," New man said. "We tragically lost a dog five years ago. That was flashing before my eyes and I wanted to prevent that from happening again."

In an effort to rescue his dog, Newman became trapped in the water.

"I tried to lay across the ice to get out from under it ... but I would end up in the water again. I didn’t know how long it would be before somebody came. The water was so cold and numbness was setting in. It was a very, very tense set of events," Newman said.

Newman is a lucky man, though, because Bzura went to see if he could get help and found Benjamin, 47, who was working to clean up from a snowstorm that hit the area the day before.

Benjamin said he grabbed a tow strap from his car and arrived on the scene.

"I was thinking of getting (Newman) out of there. He looked like he was in a lot of pain," Benjamin said. "I said, ‘You can do this, you can do this.’ I was trying to motivate him."

Eventually, Newman caught the strap and grabbed his dog. Benjamin then dragged Newman and Bailey to safety.

Benjamin carried Newman back to the school, according to Sharon Witchel, the school district’s public information officer. He called 911 and volunteers from the Marlboro First Aid Squad and officers from the Marlboro Police Department arrived on the scene and transported Newman to CentraState Medical Center, Freehold Township, where he was treated for extreme hypothermia.

Newman related the story during a Board of Education meeting on Dec. 16 when board members and school district administrators honored Benjamin for his heroic effort. Newman is fine now, except for some numbness in his hand, which doctors have said will heal, he said.

Newman was very thankful for Benjamin’s quick thinking and heroism.

"In the movie, ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ Jimmy Stewart has a guardian angel who gets him out of a tough spot. My guardian angel is Vernon Benjamin," Newman said.

Divine intervention was partly responsible for the rescue, said Benjamin and his wife, Michelle.

"My husband was planning to drive another vehicle [to work], but it didn’t start, which was odd because we never had problems starting it before. He took

a truck with the rope instead. The next day the other car started fine. We say it’s the Lord’s doing because if he didn’t have that rope he would not have been able to help," Michelle said.

Michelle said her husband often helps people in distress. She said that on Dec. 12 he stopped to help a woman whose car was trapped in a ditch on Route 18.

"My husband tells me he helps people all the time because if something hap­pened to him or our family we’d want people to help us," she said.

Board of Education President Cynthia Green presented Benjamin with a certifi­cate of recognition on behalf of the board.

"It’s not often the board gets to thank one of our own for doing something so brave and so heroic. On behalf of the Board of Education and myself in particu­lar, because (Newman and Bzura) happen to be good friends of mine, we thank you so much for your bravery and your quick thinking," Green said.