18 in U.S. and Canada to receive Carnegie Medal for Acts of Extraordinary Heroism
The Carnegie Hero Fund is honored to recognize 18 individuals, including a husband who pulled his wife from the jaws of an 8.5-foot alligator in Stuart, Florida; a 17-year-old who, in Hamilton, Ontario, entered a flaming tent to remove a homeless man tangled in a tarp; and a 32-year-old man who rescued the driver of a sinking pickup truck in the Mississippi River in La Crescent, Minnesota.
Those recognized today risked serious injury or death attempting to save others in acts of extraordinary heroism. This is the Hero Fund’s second award announcement for 2026. Each individual will receive the Carnegie Medal, North America’s highest honor for civilian heroism.
Among those saved by this quarter’s Carnegie Medal recipients were six children, including a teenage girl who was saved from drowning by a 73-year-old man while caught in a rip current off Ocean City, New Jersey, and a 7-year-old boy rescued from burning by his father in Spring Hill, Tennessee.
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 10,581 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 122 years since the Fund was established by industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, nearly $47 million has been given in one-time grants, scholarship aid, death benefits, and continuing assistance.
The recipients are:
- Kelby Perren Palm City, Florida
- Ezekiel Fox Hamilton, Ontario
- Gary M. Simard, deceased Methuen, Massachusetts
- Kenny Crosby Miami Beach, Florida
- Joseph F. Mello III Ipswich, Massachusetts
- Matthew Forrester Lilburn, Georgia
- Matthew C. Schoenecker, deceased Los Angeles
- Matthew Thomas Anthony, deceased New York
- David Cardenas Rockford, Michigan
- Matthew Baxter Saint John, New Brunswick
- Ryan Warren Weaverville, California
- Brandon Rorer Spring Hill, Tennessee
- Frank John LaFerrara Ocean City, New Jersey\
- Stanley Grenier Springvale, Maine
- Frank Mervin Young, deceased Sugar Hill, Georgia
- Dustin Colson Leaning Boston
- Casey Gerek Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin
- Matthew Curran Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin
To nominate someone for the Carnegie Medal, complete an online nomination form at carnegiehero.org 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: facebook.com/carnegiehero, Instagram: @carnegiehero, and Twitter: @carnegie_hero.