He's very warmhearted, he'll help anyone.
He's a guy that saves people.
Really came through for his friends.
I wasn't strong enough to go out there.
We're going to surprise Virgil
with a standing ovation to celebrate his kindness.
- [Reporter] The disaster in Dickinson, Texas
started under the cover of darkness.
- [Commentator] No one was prepared.
You couldn't see anything.
It was bad.
You can hear screams.
The helicopter was flyin' over us,
but they was goin' to other areas.
We couldn't get no help.
As rain submerged the city,
a surprising hero emerged in a disaster.
- [Blonde Reporter] What a story this is.
This 13-year-old.
I can't believe it myself.
I can't believe it, but he did it.
He did it.
This was our residence.
The water was about this high.
Swimmed all the way here to this apartment,
upstairs, 102.
Then Virgil phone rung
and that's when his friend said he needed help.
There was water comin' in through the door.
The water started getting higher,
so we went outside to go see if we could see something.
We saw V there swimming around.
They say they can't swim, I have to help 'em.
I have a air mattress, and he said, I'm gonna swim back.
I didn't want nothing to happen to him,
like everything under water
so I knew it was snakes, alligators.
He went behind this building, where his friend called him
and brought them back, they was all drying off.
Virgil was standing up there and we heard screams
and Virgil said, "I hear someone screaming."
and it was this lady over here in the wheelchair,
so Virgil came down, swam with the air mattress,
burst a window, right there, got the lady out
and then, his mother thought about a little cute little dog,
say she hadn't seen one of her dogs
and so, Virgil put the dog on the air mattress too.
After the last person, they brought the air mattress back,
it burst and that was it.
You know, I don't think a lot
of the kids know that it was him.
He didn't go around, bragging to people.
We didn't even know it, he came into school
and continued to be the person that he is.
Virgil is a shy person, when I go around
telling people the story, he hates it,
he don't even like to talk about it, he shy.
He more or less liked to charge
and so, I thought he was very courageous for that.
Everyone here take a knee.
Who knows Virgil?
Everybody.
Who knows what he did recently?
In Hurricane Harvey?
Yeah.
I do.
What did he do?
He saved like, 17 kids or something
like that on an air mattress, I saw it on the news.
You saw on the news?
Yes sir.
Someone does something like that,
we should probably do something for them, don't you think?
- [All] Yes sir.
The plan today is to celebrate him
and give him a standing ovation.
He has no idea.
He did something that not very many people can do.
He went out at two o'clock in the morning,
on an air mattress and saved 17 people.
He did a good thing to help people.
Everybody just started looking at me
and I just seeing cameras all around my face.
Feeling pretty good, everybody clapping for me,
feeling pretty good.
Virgil has something in him that is great,
to do what he did, the courage
and to me, that's all he needs to make it in this life.
We are so proud of you and your act of kindness,
that we told the producers of
the movie, Wonder, all about you.
The film, Wonder, is about choosing kindness
and that is exactly what you did.
It was truly heroic because at that moment,
I don't even think that he thought
that he was sacrificing his own life to save somebody else.
In honor of your active kindness,
they wanted us to present you,
with a scholarship to help with school
and they're also making a donation
to the Harvey Relief efforts in your name.
Way to go!
Thank you.
I can't believe it, I'm proud of him for doing that.
I look at him as a hero because he saved me.
It didn't matter who you are, where you are
or where you come from, you can do great things.
You can do great things.
Virgil, I'm glad that you saved me and my family
and I wanna let you know that I love you.
Alright.