DIXFIELD — Marissa LaPointe’s mother was driving Marissa to school on April 4 when her mother had a seizure.

The Peru seventh-grader took action as the car approached a bridge. She put on the four-way flashers, took the driver’s foot off the gas pedal, steered the vehicle into an empty parking lot, put it into park and called 911. No one was injured.

“While she was on the phone, she cared for her mother, as she was instructed,” Dixfield Fire Capt. Barry Prescott said Friday during a student assembly at Dirigo Middle School.

First responders recognized Marissa with a public safety award at the school-wide gathering .

“I thought it was best to just stay calm and not work myself up, so I could really think about it,” Marissa said. Her mother, Jenna LaPointe, has a history of seizures, she said, “so just in case it ever happened in the car, I was prepared.”

Jenna LaPointe said, “I’ve always told her to pay attention to me if I don’t feel good. And she paid attention. It’s never happened in the car before.”

She’s very proud of her daughter’s actions. “She took the wheel in a line of traffic. There were kids at bus stops. It could have ended really bad.”

Personnel from Peru and Dixfield fire departments, Med-Care Ambulance and Rumford Hospital were all there for the presentation Friday.

“All thought she should be recognized for her composure and immediate actions that prevented serious injury,” Prescott said.

Before presenting the award, Prescott said, “Many of us, as adults, feel powerless to change things in the world around us. I imagine you, as middle school students, feel much the same way. How could your actions possibly change the world around you?

Today, we’re here to recognize one of your fellow classmates who seized the moment and did just that. She changed the course of events, from something that could have ended horribly, to a very positive ending.”

Berta Broomhall, senior paramedic for Med-Care Ambulance, said, “Whenever something happens like this, it’s a very scary situation, and the way you act in front of other people and in an emergency really makes a difference. And Marissa made a difference in her mother’s life and potentially defused something that could have had a tragic ending.”

State Rep. Richard Pickett told Marissa that she will be recognized with a Legislative Sentiment in Augusta. The sentiment will become archived as a part of the history of the state of Maine.

Pickett said what Marissa did was an act of heroism. “Sometimes, choices and decisions we make happen in an instant.”

Marissa, who watched as Med-Care medics take action to help her mother that day, said she knows what she wants to be when she grows up: a paramedic.