On Saturday, a boy wandered away from his home and got lost in the woods.

All too often, the story ends tragically, but not this time.

Lawrence County Sheriff Jeff Lawless put out a call for help in the search for 12-year-old Brody Davis, the response was tremendous. Volunteers from fire departments came out on ATVs, citizens came out on horseback, the Huntington Police Department sent a dog and the Ohio State Highway Patrol sent a helicopter to search the dense woods.

As night fell and the search entered its twelfth hour, those volunteers had to go home.

The helicopter pilot told Lawless that they had to return to base in Columbus.

There was a good chance the boy would have to spend the night alone in the woods.

But even as the helicopter was heading north, the troopers continued the search.

And as shown in dramatic footage from the OSHP copter, they spotted the boy in the woods and held their position over him as they waited for volunteers on ATVs to get to the location.

Even though the video is black and white and taken from a great height, it was heartwarming and heartbreaking to see the boy open his arms wide to be picked up by his rescuers. He was carried back to the ATVs and reunited with his family.

The cynical among us would say that they were “just” doing their jobs. While that is true to a small degree, it also dehumanizes our first responders and minimizes the tremendous effort that they bring to the job each and every day.

We at The Ironton Tribune salute everyone involved and laud the fact that this was a successful rescue because they didn’t give up.