Spring teen earns Lifesaving Award

Rachel Piper, 14, receives her Girl Scout Medal of Honor from Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Council CEO Mary Vitek. Piper earned the award for saving her mother's life during a jet ski accident.

Rachel Piper, a 14-year-old from Spring, recently received the Girl Scout Medal of Honor for saving the life of her mother during a jet ski accident.

Piper is one of less than 15 girls in the nation to receive the prestigious award in 2012, which recognizes Girl Scouts ages 5-17 who have saved or attempted to save a life.

Piper's mother, Laura Piper, was driving a jet ski while Rachel was knee boarding on back. When the elder Piper turned around to check on her daughter, she hit a bank filled with bushes, trees and roots and was thrown off the jet ski. She landed face down in the water.

The younger Piper swam over to her mother and found her immobile and bleeding due to injuries sustained in the crash. She then pulled her mother and the jet ski approximately 350 feet to shore to get help.

"I am so thankful that Rachel was such a quick responder and knew what to do in that time I was unable to move," Laura said in the release. "She did not panic at all and continued to talk to me as we moved across the lake."

Piper received the Lifesaving Medal of Honor from Mary Vitek, the CEO of the Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Council.

"Rachel is a living testament to the highest principles of the Girl Scout promise and law and we could not be prouder of her achievement," Vitek said in the press release.