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Heroes: Teen NJ Boys Form Human Chain To Save Kids Who Crashed Through Icy Pond While Sledding

A pair of New Jersey siblings will never forget their first time sledding, thanks to a group of teen boys who rushed to their rescue, narrowly avoiding tragedy.

Richard Heid, Olivia, RJ and Stephanie Irlbeck.

Richard Heid, Olivia, RJ and Stephanie Irlbeck.

Photo Credit: Stephanie Irlbeck Facebook photo

A group of teenage boys from New Jersey formed a human chain in an icy pond to rescue two siblings who crashed their first time out sledding.

Olivia, 8, and RJ, 4, went down a small slope without a hitch the first time around at the Beacon Hill Country Club in Atlantic Highlands on Thursday.

But the second time around, the siblings -- on the same sled -- were pushed down a hill, then went up onto a smaller one and flew into the pond, breaking the ice, mom Stephanie Irlbeck said.

Irlbeck, the siblings' mom, stood screaming at the top of the hill as their dad, Rich Heid, jumped on a smaller sled after them, yelling for the youngsters to jump off on the way down.

As fate would have it, the group of five Middletown High School North freshman were at the same icy pond to see if it had frozen over, when they heard Heid yelling for his kids to jump off the sled.

Before RJ and Olivia even reached the pond, Kiernan Foley, 14, a Boy Scout, had already jumped in, Irlbeck said.

That's when Foley grabbed RJ, and handed him to his friends -- Ryan Day, Drew Scalice, Joseph Deitrich and Tyler Armgan -- who formed a human chain and were passing the kids to shore.

Irlbeck said if RJ had fallen under the ice, this would have been "a whole other story," the New York Post reports.

“Not only did they stop a potentially catastrophic situation," the grateful mom wrote on Facebook, "they didn’t even want anything in return."

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