- So earlier this week I dedicated
an entire hour to my Good Neighbor campaign.
(upbeat music)
♪ Good, good, so good. ♪
♪ Good neighbor. ♪
- There's a reason this campaign is important to me.
It's not just about talking to strangers or being polite,
it's about showing up when
your community needs you the most.
That's something my next guests fully appreciate.
A few weeks ago, they experienced
every parent's worst nightmare
when their six year old son disappeared
along with his best friend, his dog Remington.
But this story has a happy ending
thanks to an army of good neighbors.
Here to share it are parents Dan and Sheri,
along with good neighbor Steve,
just one of the many volunteers that day.
(applause)
How did your son go missing?
- It happened after school.
He was getting off the bus
and he's the youngest of our three children.
He's the most outgoing.
And we live in rural Minnesota.
Out in the...
We have 20 acres and we're surrounded by woods and corn.
So, it's real easy to get lost.
- Yeah.
- So they came into the house and Remington went outside
and Ethan just followed him,
and then he just kept walking.
So when the boys found out that he was missing,
then they called me right away
and then I called Dan and we raced home.
- As soon as she called me,
I got home and as soon as I pulled in the driveway
I could see our older two boys
and they were just pale white,
and so I knew that something was wrong.
So I grabbed them.
We went through the house,
we through our out buildings and things like that
and as soon as I did that I knew,
for sure, I had to call 911.
Did that, started searching some more,
the police showed up and started
to get a command center set up
and it was amazing to see the support immediately
and how many people started to show up.
- So many strangers got involved,
not just first responders.
This is the thing I love about this story.
Just tons of normal people just finding out
that your son is lost and wanting to help, right?
- It was incredible, the number of people.
The sheriff's office put it on Twitter
and on Facebook and thousands of people heard.
They started coming and coming.
They had a command center in our yard.
People started parking on the highway,
out in our driveway and on the highway.
- I was in the woods searching
and when I came out and started walking down the driveway
and the first thing I could see
was hundreds of people at a staging area
waiting to get on buses
and the Becker School District,
they allowed numerous buses,
and people donated their time driving people out over.
- [Kelly] What an amazing community.
- And there was cars lined up on the street
as far as you could see, both ways,
and when I saw that I just kind of stopped
and my cousin that was with me
just kind of put his arm on my shoulder.
- Yeah.
- And I just kind of looked at him and I just kind of go,
"I don't know what to do or say."
- Whoo.
I can't imagine.
Ian, I mean you're little one, what would you do?
- Well, my grandma lives in Georgia
and she has nowhere near 20 acres,
but she does have some woods in her backyard
and I love riding my bike
and her dogs follow me a lot.
If I was out there, I really don't know.
My dog, Coco, he recently passed away unfortunately,
but he, I trusted him with my life,
so I would have clung by the dog.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
I love that about dogs.
I love my dogs.
So Steve, how did you find out Ethan was missing?
- About 7:30 that night, as mentioned,
I saw it on Twitter that the sheriff
had put out a call for help.
There was a missing child, and if anybody could come help.
I have a drone business
and part of what I do is thermal inspection.
So I have a thermal camera on a drone
inspecting buildings, other structures.
I just immediately packed up all my gear and drove over.
You know, I had never met them.
I didn't know them, but I just, there's a missing child,
I have a tool that can help, I gotta go.
- You're a great dude!
(applause)
You're such a great man!
Steve, you captured the moment he was found on infrared.
Let's take a look at that and tell us what's going on.
- [Steve] So, the field is light
and then the darker spots are the people.
The long, skinny one is Remington.
And you can see how excited he was,
running around there on the left.
And they're kind of making a path.
There's an irrigation path,
which is the easiest place to walk.
You can start to see some of the other rescuers
that were in the area.
And this is muddy, heavy corn,
they're pushing through the corn stalks.
You know, it's tough going anywhere,
moving through this area.
- And scary at nighttime.
Like, even, I mean...
- [Dan] Low 30s.
- Right.
- I should say low 40s, upper 30s.
- [Kelly] I mean, for a kid...
Heck, I'm 37, I don't want that.
I don't want to be in a cornfield.
I've seen scary movies.
(laughter)
I don't want to be in no cornfield at night,
stuck out there by myself.
No.
So Dan, you must have been so relieved though,
'cause word traveled fast, right, that they'd found...
- Yes, I was in a complete different area searching
and as I was going along,
all of a sudden I heard just a person scream something.
And I stopped and it was the longest seconds of my life
because I wasn't sure if he was alive or dead.
- Yeah.
Oh man.
- I knew the scream came from that direction
and so I just took off running.
And all of a sudden I could start to hear
other people cheering and it started here,
and then it was over here,
and then here,
and behind you and you could hear it for miles.
- [Sheri] You could hear it for miles.
- [Dan] And it was like being at a stadium or something,
you know, if somebody scores a touchdown or something,
just the crowd erupts and it's...
- [Kelly] I mean, pure joy from people finding him.
Yeah.
- [Dan] I don't know how to explain it.
- [Kelly] It's the sound of the best side of humanity.
- Yes.
(applause)
- It's the sound of really good humans.
So Steve, you got the rescue on camera
but you took another dramatic picture that night.
Explain the picture.
- So when I put the drone up initially,
with a regular camera,
it's just pure dark except for maybe a few little flashes
of flashlights going through the cornfield.
You can't see anything.
But then when I switched over to thermal,
this image appeared, which I just found so moving.
- [Kelly] That's a beautiful picture.
What an amazing way technology can help us
find the ones we love, find the animals we love.
Your job is amazing, what you do.
Thank you for doing it.
(applause)
- We just heard from Steve,
one of the complete strangers who helped find Ethan.
Sheri and Dan, there were countless others, though,
who made a difference, right, in this search?
- Yes.
When I came out of the woods and started, you know,
going out to the staging points and things like that,
there was numerous teachers from the schools,
superintendents, principals,
all those different types of people like that
gave up their night to search for this little boy.
I had a cousin that, once he found out,
he drove for over three hours
just to try to get here to help.
- Aw.
- [Dan] And some friends that came into the house
that were there for Sherry.
And Alan, who was a person that I've known
pretty much my entire life that,
he was going through the thickest underbrush
and mud and all this kind of stuff,
and the worst thing is that he has cancer
and he's going through radiation
and all other types of things,
but he gave up his night to come and look.
And it didn't matter how sick he was.
- Okay, well.
- [Sheri] Yep.
- Okay.
- And then another woman was Betty,
she just had knee surgery and her doctors told her
to be taking it easy and staying off of it
and she said, "We just have to go out.
It's like searching for your grandson."
- Okay.
Everything's fine.
These are the nicest people.
I'm gonna move to your town.
(laughter)
You have the nicest neighbors.
So, two strangers who got involved
were the volunteers who actually found Ethan.
Jared and Jesse are here with us in the audience, y'all.
(applause)
So how did you all get involved in this search?
How did you hear about it?
- So I was actually sitting at home on Facebook
and I saw the story that Ethan was missing
come across my news feed.
I'm a father myself.
I have a seven year old, Jordan,
and for me, it hit home really hard.
- [Kelly] Of course.
- At that point, I just decided that,
I need to do something.
I need to help.
So that's right when I called my buddy, Jesse,
to see if he could come as well.
- When I got the phone call from Jared,
I hadn't heard anything about this at this point,
so when he told me, I was floored.
I also have a twelve year old son, Owen.
Right then and there, we're both hunters.
We packed up our hunting equipment.
We were ready to go until six a.m. or
'til they were going to kick us out of the field,
and we headed out there, out to the field,
where, when we were walking through the field...
- That's when, we got about halfway through the field,
the line stopped.
At that moment, the wind had died down.
It had been windy all night and raining off and on.
- You said "raining off and on"?
- Yeah, it was drizzling that night, too.
- Oh.
- So, it was cold and wet.
But when the wind died, for that split second,
I heard a dog whining.
So we kind of knew a general direction
of where that was coming from.
I mean, as you can imagine,
he's a little bit quicker than I am.
- At that point, I took off through the cornfield
and I was beeline-ing it until I saw this little boy.
And my heart just fell out of me.
And he looked up at me with these big eyes
and a smile on his face,
and he just looked right at me and said, "You saved me."
(audience reacts)
- Okay.
(applause)
That's got to be, especially being a daddy,
that's got to be...
- It's something that words can't express.
I picked the little boy up and
it's the closest thing to pure joy that I've ever had.
- So when you finally got...
I'm just trying to clean up, y'all.
Woo.
I'm like "Clean up on aisle six."
(laughter)
So when you finally got to Ethan, like,
was that just, did like all the emotions come out?
'Cause I would...
That's what would happen with me.
- They were driving us there and
I didn't even wait for the car to stop.
I jumped out of the vehicle,
I left Sheri and the other two boys in the car
and I sprinted to the ambulance.
And the door was open,
I jump inside and he's cuddled up in a little blanket,
he's got this big grin on his face.
So I look at him and I'm like,
"Buddy, what happened?"
And he goes, "Oh, dad, I got lost in the woods."
(laughter)
- You think?
- I'm like, "Yeah, buddy."
And then he instantly smiled again,
and there was two ladies in the ambulance
and he looks at both of them and he goes, "I'm good now."
- Oh my gosh!
- While I'm busy hugging the firefighters
and crying and we're all hugging.
- [Kelly] Yes!
What a beautiful ending!
That could have, you know what I'm saying,
it could have gone any number of ways.
(applause)
Well, we've been talking about them the whole time,
I think it's time to finally meet them!
Ethan and Remington, come on out here.
(applause and cheering)
Come here.
Hi!
Hello!
Do you give hugs?
Hi!
You're so adorable.
You wanna sit by your mama?
Look how cute you look!
I want this outfit for my son.
Which, by the way, my youngest son's name is Remington.
(laughter)
Funny enough.
Do you want to say anything, though,
to Jared and Jesse, Ethan?
(laughter)
He's like, "No, I'm good, I'm shy, I'm shy."
Well, I'm sure you already said it when they found you.
Did you say thank you?
- Thank you.
- Are you gonna go hug them?
I saw you.
Oh my god.
He is adorable
Oh my god.
- Can I get a hug, too?
(grunting)
- Oh my gosh, I love it.
You are such a cool dude.
I'm so happy you had Remington there with you.
That's good.
I believe in a buddy system, in life.