- December 4, 2025
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Nathan Patel, 12, has earned merit badges in areas from climbing to archery during his time in Boy Scouts Troop 14 in Sarasota.
One opportunity he didn't expect, however, was the chance to put his skills to practice saving two lives.
During a June family vacation in Thailand, Patel was met with an unexpected chance to act, which he quickly recognized, tossing out a ring buoy to a couple who were struggling in a resort pool.
At a troop Court of Honor on Sept. 9, Patel was presented with the Medal of Merit, an award given to a select few Scouts and recognizing "an act of meritorious service above and beyond what is normally expected."
Patel's interest in Boy Scouts was sparked in the first grade, when he attended some of the campouts of his brother Nikhil Patel, who is now 14 and an Eagle Scout.
“I like how you learn skills like camping, cooking, and how it's like a social group and we all work together,” Nathan said.
Prior to last summer, Nathan received the rank of First Class Scout, and after the summer he was elected as a patrol leader.
Beyond Nathan and Nikhil, however, the whole family is also involved with Scouts. Nathan's younger brother Nolan Patel, 5, recently started in Cub Scouts, and their parents Shuchi and Neal Patel are both assistant Scout masters.
It was just two months prior to the vacation that Nathan had learned the skills that would prove to be life-saving.
At Cedarkirk Camp & Conference Center in Lithia, Scoutmaster Ed Wilson had taught the troop about line rescues. The Scouts would take turns tossing out a ring buoy to pull another Scout from the river.
Some of the skills they learned included making sure the rope wasn't bound up and how to coil it properly, and how to plan for the other person's movement in the current when throwing the device.
Although the situation in the resort pool was a bit different, Nathan still thought back to what he had learned in Boy Scouts.
As Nathan was sitting by what his family describes as a "huge" pool at the Thailand resort, the family saw the couple.
They were struggling to walk toward the deep end of the pool, and it was apparent they didn't know how to swim, said Shuchi.
The pool was deceptively deep, she explained; just before that moment, Neal had come in from the far end, remarking how quickly the slope changed.
As the family yelled, no one else noticed what was happening.
Some people were sitting with headphones and reading, waiters and servers were going about their tasks, and no lifeguards were in sight.
“At first my dad was like, ‘Oh, they look like they need help. ‘Because their expression on their face, it was like, ‘Oh no," recounted Nathan.
“You have that moment where you're like, surely somebody's responsible for helping, and we’re yelling, and there's no lifeguard, and the waiters are all busy, and the people in the pool are busy," Shuchi said. "Everybody's so busy, and no one's noticing what we're noticing."
As Neal considered jumping in to rescue the couple, Nathan dissuaded him, telling him what he had learned in Boy Scouts: that with two other people in the water, he would be pulled under.
Meanwhile, another man was looking into the pool as if he planned to attempt a rescue.
It was Nathan who finally saw what to do.
“He was going to jump in, but that's something we learned you're not supposed to do, so when I saw that, I knew I had to quickly do something to save his life too,” Nathan said.
Nathan saw an untethered ring buoy, and tossed it across a long distance, in the couple's direction, just after the man entered the water
It landed perfectly in the couple's location, Shuchi says, and the couple grabbed on, using it to kick back to shore.
As the couple reached the deck, they said "thank you" and walked away, Nathan recounted.
“He was the one who figured it out at 12 years old, which was crazy, because you think that there should be somebody trained, and everybody always thinks somebody else is going to be there, and then you end up realizing it's you," Shuchi said.
After a few minutes, the family checked in on the couple.
“We gave them a minute, because they were terrified,” Shuchi said.
“They were like, thank you so much," Nathan said. "It was like, ‘I didn't really know what was going to happen if you didn't do that."
Nathan said at the time, he felt "happy, like proud that I did something."
“I'm proud of myself for being that keen-eyed, being in the moment, being ready, knowing those skills, being prepared,” he said.
Scoutmaster Ed Wilson says Nathan "did a great job in practice, and did a great job in reality, too."
“I was shocked," he said. "I was really proud of him, so it's a kind of emotional thing. We teach a lot of stuff in Scouts, and a lot of useful things. However, you don't always think that something like this is the thing that they will learn and need to use. We do a lot of other practical knowledge skills, but truly saving someone's life is just absolutely amazing.”
Shuchi notes that Boy Scouts often teach skills repeatedly; for instance, after returning from vacation, Nathan would practice the same water rescue skills while earning the swimming merit badge.
"It's really impressive that a kid that's 12 can come up with that and do it, and I think that's a really cool thing about Scouting in general, is they're teaching kids from that young age up until now, some of these things repetitively, over the years, to the point where it sticks," she said.
Nathan says seeing the difference his skills were able to make in the real world has made him more motivated and more excited about Scouts.
“I'm probably never going to use all these skills, but now I realize it’s really handy,” he said.
On Sept. 9, he was presented with the Medal of Merit by District Commissioner Christopher Corteville, which Wilson describes as a very high honor given to select few Scouts.
“It feels really honoring, like I did something really big,” Nathan said.
