Video by: Mr. Richard Lawrence
Summary of the story told below:
Mr. Lawrence, a teacher at Mount for over 50 years tells about a service trip he has been taking with his students for nearly 20 years. On the Blowing Rocks Preserve in Jupiter Island, Florida Mr. Lawrence and some of his students from his famous AP Literature class were living at a Boy Scout reservation doing clean up work on one of the last days of the trip. As a reward for the students hard work on the reservation, the scoutmaster allowed him and his students to take a set of canoes and paddle down the Loxahatchee River. He warned him, however that the river was teeming with alligators but as long as you don't bother them they won't bother you. The scoutmaster continued saying they are usually along the banks, so tell the students to stay away from outsides of the river. But, Mr. Lawrence pauses and says "these are teenagers, so what do they do? [They go along the banks]." So when a student began yelling "Alligator, alligator!", Mr. Lawrence and his son paddled over as fast as they could to help out the student. As they approached, they could see that there was an alligator sunning itself on a log so he started to yell to his students to get away as fast as they could. However, Mr. Lawrence and his son were still going "full steam ahead," towards the alligator. Once they got to the log, the alligator jumped off and jumped over the back of their canoe. Mr. Lawrence remarked that it was scary in the moment, but now it is a story he tells to his three year old grandson over and over.
Closed Captioning for Video:
Hello, I am going to tell you a story today that took place on a service trip. For nearly 20 years, I took a group of my seniors to the Blowing Rocks Preserve in Florida. It is an island off the coast of Florida. In this particular year we were living at a Boy Scout reservation and we had done some clean up work at the reservation. The scoutmaster said to me, "I would like to reward your students for their great work, on your last day here, we are going to give you a set of canoes and you can go paddle down the Loxahatchee River. The one thing you have to be careful about is the river is teeming with alligators, and they are pretty docile as long as you don't bother them. You will see them along the banks. Tell your students not to canoe near the banks, particularly if they see an alligator, don't go near it." But these are teenagers, so what do they do? Well, we were on the Loxahatchee that afternoon, I heard some yelling and screaming, and suddenly I see someone standing up in the canoe, and the canoe very close to shore. He is screaming, "Alligator, alligator!". I said, oh my gosh, I am going to lose one of my students. I paddled over there. My son was in the back of the canoe paddling and I told him, "Go as fast as you can over there, I have to save these students from themselves and from this alligator." As we approached, we could see that there was an alligator sleeping on a log, sunning itself on a log. I started to yell out to my students, "Get away from that area!" As they moved away, we were going full steam ahead, we were not able to turn, we were not able to stop. We were going straight at the alligator on the log. As we approached the log, the alligator jumped off the log and jumped toward our canoe. Actually, I think it kind of flew over the canoe, or the side of the canoe. My son who had his hand outside the canoe said he actually felt the alligator. We were in such a tizzy that I thought the canoe was going to tip over, and thought, okay, this is it, eaten by alligators because of my teenage students not really listening to me. But, somehow we survived, we got back. I have a story that I tell over and over one to my grandchildren. He is three years old and he loves it. He always says to me, he calls me Bobby. "Bobby, tell me the story about the alligators".