By Tom Steadman
Staff Writer
News-Recorder (Greensboro, North Carolina, USA)
GREENSBORO -- At 13, Y-Yop Enuol has seen his share of adversity.
Before arriving in America in 2003, he and his family spent nearly two years in a refugee camp in Cambodia, huddled with thousands of other Montagnards fleeing persecution in Vietnam and waiting for the chance to emigrate.
Now, with his family finally reunited in Greensboro, Y-Yop (pronounced E-Up) leads the life of a typical teenager -- soccer, school, homework and Boy Scouts.
But he hasn't forgotten his family's struggle or how to fight adversity. That's why Y-Yop will be honored in a Boy Scout ceremony Monday night, when he will receive Scouting's Medal of Merit.
The award recognizes Y-Yop's courage and character in stepping forward last winter to identify gang members that terrorized his apartment complex in northeast Greensboro.
"I wasn't scared,'' said Y-Yop, who was 12 at the time and staring down four teenage gang members yelling threats at him and others from the back seat of a police cruiser.
The four were arrested after a crime spree at Y-Yop's apartment complex that included a break-in and theft of $300 in cash, theft and vandalism of bicycles, assault on a boy and the shooting out of a window on a truck belonging to Y-Yop's father.
Adults on the scene, many of them immigrants from cultures distrustful of law enforcement, were too fearful to identify the suspects; only Y-Yop and an 11-year-old friend named Y-Thoeu stood together and did so.
"We were friends, and friends help each other," Y-Yop said.
Y-Yop said he and his father saw the youths shoot out the truck window, then Y-Yop followed them at a distance while his father phoned the police. Then, when the youths were brought back to the complex in a police car, Y-Yop pointed out the ones who had shot out the truck window.
"He bravely identified the suspects when others refused,'' said Kent Carter, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who has befriended Y-Yop's family. Carter was on the scene when Y-Yop pointed out the gang members and provided a witness statement in support of the Medal of Merit.
"That was setting a good example,'' Carter said.
Y-Yop, a Boy Scout for more than a year, was nominated for the award by Eugene Quillen, Scoutmaster of Troop 109, sponsored by Guilford United Methodist Church. Quillen called Y-Yop a good Scout, energetic and athletic.
The Medal of Merit isn't awarded often, according to the Boy Scouts of America national office in Irving, Texas. About 100 of the medals are awarded each year; only two have been given locally in recent years, according to the Old North State Council, which oversees local Scout troops.
Y-Yop, meanwhile, now lives across town with his family in a house adjacent to Guilford United Methodist Church, which sponsors them and other immigrant families new to Greensboro.
Still, he hasn't forgotten where he came from.
Contact Tom Steadman at 373-7351 or tsteadman@news-record.com
Before arriving in America in 2003, he and his family spent nearly two years in a refugee camp in Cambodia, huddled with thousands of other Montagnards fleeing persecution in Vietnam and waiting for the chance to emigrate.
Now, with his family finally reunited in Greensboro, Y-Yop (pronounced E-Up) leads the life of a typical teenager -- soccer, school, homework and Boy Scouts.
But he hasn't forgotten his family's struggle or how to fight adversity. That's why Y-Yop will be honored in a Boy Scout ceremony Monday night, when he will receive Scouting's Medal of Merit.
The award recognizes Y-Yop's courage and character in stepping forward last winter to identify gang members that terrorized his apartment complex in northeast Greensboro.
"I wasn't scared,'' said Y-Yop, who was 12 at the time and staring down four teenage gang members yelling threats at him and others from the back seat of a police cruiser.
The four were arrested after a crime spree at Y-Yop's apartment complex that included a break-in and theft of $300 in cash, theft and vandalism of bicycles, assault on a boy and the shooting out of a window on a truck belonging to Y-Yop's father.
Adults on the scene, many of them immigrants from cultures distrustful of law enforcement, were too fearful to identify the suspects; only Y-Yop and an 11-year-old friend named Y-Thoeu stood together and did so.
"We were friends, and friends help each other," Y-Yop said.
Y-Yop said he and his father saw the youths shoot out the truck window, then Y-Yop followed them at a distance while his father phoned the police. Then, when the youths were brought back to the complex in a police car, Y-Yop pointed out the ones who had shot out the truck window.
"He bravely identified the suspects when others refused,'' said Kent Carter, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who has befriended Y-Yop's family. Carter was on the scene when Y-Yop pointed out the gang members and provided a witness statement in support of the Medal of Merit.
"That was setting a good example,'' Carter said.
Y-Yop, a Boy Scout for more than a year, was nominated for the award by Eugene Quillen, Scoutmaster of Troop 109, sponsored by Guilford United Methodist Church. Quillen called Y-Yop a good Scout, energetic and athletic.
The Medal of Merit isn't awarded often, according to the Boy Scouts of America national office in Irving, Texas. About 100 of the medals are awarded each year; only two have been given locally in recent years, according to the Old North State Council, which oversees local Scout troops.
Y-Yop, meanwhile, now lives across town with his family in a house adjacent to Guilford United Methodist Church, which sponsors them and other immigrant families new to Greensboro.
Still, he hasn't forgotten where he came from.
Contact Tom Steadman at 373-7351 or tsteadman@news-record.com
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