Limestone County, Alabama, Commission Chairman Collin Daly presented the Carnegie Medal to John Reinhardt at an Oct. 6 presentation held at the city council building in Athens, Alabama.
Reinhardt was awarded the medal after his March 29, 2024, rescue of a 32-year-old man from drowning in Elkmont, Alabama.
Caleb Bennett was fishing in a kayak in the Elk River when it overturned, tossing Bennett in the frigid water where he struggled to swim. When he attempted to swim across and exit the river, he grew tired but managed to grasp a low-hanging tree branch that extended from the riverbank. Bennett fired multiple distress signal shots from a pistol he carried.
In the vicinity was 40-year-old Reinhardt, who heard the gunshots as he exited his truck. Reinhardt told his children to stay in the truck and then searched along the riverbank for anyone in trouble. He saw Bennett grasping the branch 40 feet from the bank, returned to his truck to call 911, and fashioned a makeshift flotation device with a garbage bag and duct tape. He returned to the riverbank with his 13-year-old daughter. Reinhardt told her to call 911 again while he removed most of his clothes and entered the water with the garbage bag. He swam 40 feet to Bennett and gave the garbage bag to him. Reinhardt instructed Bennett to move to his back and wrap his arm around his shoulders. Reinhardt then swam with Bennett, who lost the garbage bag along the way, to an exposed cluster of roots along the riverbank.
The two men clung to the roots to keep from being swept downstream until a sheriff’s department sergeant and a firefighter arrived. It took several attempts but they were able to use a rope and ratchet strap to hoist Bennett up the steep riverbank to emergency personnel. They transported him to a hospital where he was treated for cold exposure and recovered. Reinhardt was cold but otherwise unharmed.
Reinhardt accepted the medal from Daly and the Limestone County Commission, alongside his family.