Carnegie Hero Fund Commission

DEPUTY’S SACRIFICE HONORED

doug — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 15:56:58 +0000

Amy Gross of Douglas, Wyo., received her late husband’s Carnegie Medal from Converse County, Wyo., Sheriff Clinton B. Becker in December. Gross’s husband, Bryan Phillip Gross, was a deputy in Becker’s department when he died attempting to help save a 14-year-old girl from drowning in the North Platte River at Douglas on July 28, 2011. Minutes away from ending his shift that day, Dep. Gross responded to the scene and entered the river, which was swollen by mountain snowmelt. He intercepted the girl and pushed her toward the bank, but they were carried farther downstream. The girl was rescued by others, but Gross drowned. “His perception of that scene dictated his response,” Becker said. “He put the thought of failure and death behind him, and he took it upon himself to try to prevent the death of a total stranger.” Photo by Amanda Smith of The Glenrock Bird of Glenrock, Wyo., and used with permission.

EAGLE SCOUT PUTS LIFEGUARD CERTIFICATION TO GOOD USE

doug — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 15:50:45 +0000

High school student Connor Farland Stotts, 17, of Oceanside, Calif., saved Christian E. Osuna, 18, and Karen T. Ainuu, 16, from drowning in the Pacific Ocean at Oceanside on July 31, 2011. While swimming, Osuna, Karen, and others in their party were carried farther from the beach by a rip current. They struggled to return but made little progress. Connor had also been carried out by the current, but he was able to swim against it to wadable water. Seeing that the others remained stranded about 200 feet out, Connor returned to them, finding that Osuna was having difficulty staying afloat. With Osuna holding to him, Connor swam toward shore, tiring and swallowing water en route. Osuna waded to safety. Connor again turned and swam out to the others. Karen, by then semiconscious, was trying to stay afloat. Connor attempted to swim her to shore but made no progress against the current. He then helped Karen secure a hold of his neck and in that fashion returned to the beach, towing her, the remaining victims following.

Groom attempts rescue, victim killed

doug — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 15:03:12 +0000

Summer N. White, 18, was returning home from a horse show when she and her party came across a woman lying on the highway beside her car following an accident on the Kansas Turnpike in Mulvane. It was at night, in mid-June of 2012. White, a groom from Edmond, Okla., left the vehicle in which she was a passenger and went to the badly injured and screaming woman. She grasped the woman by the arms and started to move her from the lanes of travel when an oncoming truck struck the woman’s car. The car in turn spun around, striking both women and knocking them against the median barrier wall. They were taken to the hospital, where the woman was pronounced dead. White was detained three days for treatment, including surgery, of fractures to her collarbone, shoulder, and back and other injuries.

(Image Copyright Steve Thornton.)

Surfer changes mind, enters sea to save teenager

doug — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 15:16:39 +0000

School teacher Richard Henry Becker, 31, of Mendocino, Calif., saved Zayre S. Johnson, 17, from drowning in the Pacific Ocean at Mendocino Bay on Jan. 18, 2011. Zayre entered the bay to surf, but when his board broke in the rough seas he abandoned it. Rather than attempt to return to shore against a strong current, he turned toward a cove at the far end of the bay. Becker had also gone to the bay to surf but decided against it because of strong winds and 14-foot waves. Watching Zayre, he concluded that he was at risk of being swept into the treacherous area of waves breaking against the rocky cliffs near the cove. Becker entered the bay with his surfboard and paddled out toward Zayre as responding firefighters directed him. He reached Zayre after paddling about 2,000 feet out from shore. With Zayre atop him, Becker paddled toward the cove, their progress slow. Negotiating the breakers at the cove, they reached safety. Becker was nearly exhausted.

ice hero honored

walter — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 14:32:40 +0000

Colorado State Patrol Trooper Daniel Harrison Haley of Greeley may have been off duty when he saved a boy from drowning, but the presentation of his Carnegie Medal on Aug. 14 in recognition of that act was very much an official event. The medal was given to him by Hero Fund board member Linda T. Hills, left, at a ceremony at the patrol’s training academy in Golden, not far from Hills’s home in Littleton. On Nov. 27, 2010, Haley was visiting a community park in Greeley with his family when he saw a 10-year-old boy fall through ice on a pond there about 60 feet from the bank. After crawling toward the boy but also breaking through, Haley worked to heave both the boy and himself back onto solid ice. Unable to grain traction, Haley rolled to the bank, where he collapsed from exhaustion. Both he and the boy required hospital treatment, and they recovered. Col. James Wolfinbarger, chief of the state patrol, said that Haley is an “outstanding law enforcement professional and a valued member of his community. His heroic off-duty actions will always be remembered.” Hills said she was honored to make the presentation: “Giving medals in person by board members makes the award more special.” Haley is shown with his wife, Kirstin; daughter; Emmersyn, 3; and son, Nolan, who was born only five days before the presentation. Photo by Harold Hills.

Mystery Solved

balex — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 16:55:16 +0000

In case you’ve ever wondered where missing socks go on laundry day, Carnegie Medal awardee Jason W. Thurston of Northport, Maine, has solved the mystery: They escape through the vent to cavort in the land of the free, just past the plant, hidden by trees. Or so he posits in his first children’s book, The Missing Sock, which he wrote and illustrated this year. The eBook is available on Amazon.com. Thurston, who has a background in graphic design, illustration, and art history, was awarded the medal in March, for rescuing his elderly neighbor from her burning home on Christmas Eve in 2010.

Hero’s Grant Donated

balex — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 18:59:54 +0000

State law and her employer’s policies kept Massachusetts State Trooper Allyson Powell, left, from accepting a financial grant from the Hero Fund, but she was free to donate it to a charity of her choice. She did so, selecting the Shriners Hospitals for Children, Boston, in recognition of the hospital’s work in treating children with severe burns, cleft lip and palate, and orthopedic conditions regardless of their families’ ability to pay. Accepting the check for $5,000 is John F. Sugden, Jr., the hospital’s senior director of public and community relations, who said the funds will be used in the construction of a new radiology suite. Powell was awarded the Carnegie Medal last September for her actions of July 21, 2010, by which she and two motorists saved the unconscious driver of a burning automobile after a nighttime highway accident in Swansea, Mass. Although she was on duty, the Hero Fund considered her actions to be well above and beyond its call. Her corescuers were brothers George J. Flanagan of Swansea and Robert Hugh Flanagan of Denver, Colo.