16 individuals to receive Carnegie Medal for acts of extraordinary heroism

In its final announcement of 2022, the Carnegie Hero Fund is proud to recognize 16 civilians who risked their lives to save others, including a trio that rescued a man from a shark attack, a teen who died attempting to rescue a man from drowning, a retiree who rescued a man from falling down a cliff overlooking the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and a sheriff’s department K-9 handler that rescued two children from a house fire.

Each of these 16 individuals will receive the Carnegie Medal, North America’s highest honor for civilian heroism.

Among those saved by this quarter’s awardees were seven children, a man who had fallen onto a train track charged with 600 volts of electricity, an 82-year-old struggling to swim after a sailboat he was aboard capsized, and a 39-year-old truck driver after her Freightliner submerged in an inlet in British Columbia, Canada.

The Carnegie Medal is given throughout the U.S. and Canada to those who enter extreme danger while saving or attempting to save the lives of others. With this announcement, the Carnegie Medal has been awarded to 10,340 individuals since the inception of the Pittsburgh-based Fund in 1904.

Each of the recipients or their survivors will receive a financial grant. Throughout the more than 118 years since the Fund was established by industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, over $44 million has been given in one-time grants, scholarship aid, death benefits, and continuing assistance.

The awardees are:

Mikala Vish, Brighton, Michigan
Cody Hartman, Advance, Indiana
Aden Spencer Perry, deceased, Sunrise, Florida
Ralph Leo Joyce, Lark Harbour, Newfoundland
Christopher B. Arias, Oakley, California
Paul W. Bandy, Folsom, California
Aimee Johns, Folsom, California
Heath Braddock, Salinas, California
Joseph Diener, Columbia, Missouri
Dominic Viet, Columbia, Missouri
Lisa Maria Fox, Chemainus, British Columbia
Chad Ammerman, Little Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey
Anthony R. Perry, Chicago, Illinois
Robert Z. Fortner, Waverly, Tennessee
Mark Anthony Gonzales, San Antonio, Texas
Darby Bicking, Coatesville, Pennsylvania

To nominate someone for the Carnegie Medal, complete a nomination form online or write to the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, 436 Seventh Ave., Suite 1101, Pittsburgh, PA 15219. More information on the Carnegie Medal and the history of the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission can be found at carnegiehero.org. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.