A ten-year-old Ottawa boy has been awarded one of the highest honors in Scouts Canada for an act of heroism. Gaius Stroud received the Silver Cross for helping rescue his family after a horrible car crash. Looking at photos of the accident, it is hard to imagine anyone survived it but the quick-thinking Cub Scout crawled to safety then pulled his family out. At Gaius Stroud’s Barrhaven home, he proudly displays his Cub Scout badges awarded for a variety of accomplishments.

‘This is the housekeeping badge, this is the badge for sportsmanship,’ he says.

But it is the Silver Cross medal, which brings both pride and pain, that he is most proud of. It was awarded last night to Gaius for committing an act of heroism while putting himself at risk.

‘I wasn’t really thinking,’ he recalls of that day, ‘I was more just doing.’

It was August 14, 2014.  Gaius, his mother, stepfather and two of his brothers were driving home from a vacation in PEI.  It was raining and they were just outside Edmundston, New Brunswick. Suddenly, their car hydroplaned and Gaius's mother lost control.  They rolled down a 10-foot embankment.

‘We went to the bottom, we started rolling 8 to 12 times on a rocky hill and we stopped upside down,’ he says.

With the car upside down, his stepfather injured, his mother unconscious and his two brothers screaming Gaius went into action.

‘I had adrenalin and I kicked out the back window, got my brothers out, got them warm,’ then he went to check on his mother, who had managed to get out of the car but had no idea what had happened or where she was.

His brothers were fine.  But Gaius had a broken collarbone; his mother had a broken neck.  Her husband is still in hospital today, paralyzed from the chest down.

‘I'm really thankful that Gaius was okay and able to help everyone’ says Cherie Fish, Gaius’ mother, ‘because it could have been a lot worse, it could have been a lot worse.’

Gaius' father, who teaches first aid, says he couldn't be prouder of his son.

‘As a dad, I’m incredibly proud of my son,’ says Chris Stroud, ‘He shone more than I ever dreamed he could have in a situation like that.’

‘This medal makes me proud,’ says the 10-year-old, as his father pins the Silver Cross to his Cub Scout uniform.  Unlike the rest of his badges, Gaius plans to wear the Silver Cross medal only for special occasions.  He doesn't want to lose it.

Scouts Canada says Gaius is the only recipient of the Silver Cross so far this year, awarded for gallantry in committing an act of heroism.