The 2023-2024 Hero Fund biennial report is available online.
The report contains accounts of the 136 heroic acts awarded during the past two years including the extraordinary actions of 34 individuals who died trying to save others.
“Every one of us wonders from time to time if we would rise to the occasion in ‘the moment,’” Commission Chair Thomas L. Wentling, Jr., said in the report’s preface, “That is unknowable ex ante for us, but a Carnegie hero ex post is the real deal and a role model for us all.”
To date, the Hero Fund has considered more than 93,000 nominated heroic acts and by the end of 2024, 10,476 were selected for recognition. Historically, 20 percent of the awards were to those who lost their lives in rescue attempts, exemplifying the scripture verse that appears on every medal: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
In addition to the medal, each of the heroes or their survivors received a financial grant and became eligible for other benefits from the Hero Fund, including scholarship aid, ongoing assistance, and death benefits. More than $45 million in such grants has been awarded by the Commission since its inception, in keeping with Carnegie’s wish that “if the hero is injured in his bold attempt to serve or save his fellows, he and those dependent upon him should not suffer pecuniarily.”