The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission this week named 22 individuals as recipients of the Carnegie Medal, awarded throughout the U.S. and Canada to those who risk their lives to an extraordinary degree while trying to save the lives of others.
The heroes announced today bring to 9,349 the total number of awards since the Fund’s inception in 1904. Each of the awardees or their next of kin will also receive a financial grant.
In the 106 years since the Fund was established by industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, more than $32 million has been given in one-time grants, scholarship aid, death benefits, and continuing assistance to heroes and their families.
The 2010 Heroes included Jon Jesko, 49, who rescued a 76-year-old man who was being robbed of his keys at gunpoint. Jesko threw hot coffee in the suspect’s face and wrestled him to the ground. Charlton Lee, 32, was honored for saving his neighbor, a 35-year-old woman, from a man who was stabbing her by talking him into giving up his weapon. A third honoree, Michael J. Hickey, 35, entered a burning van to rescue two of nine passengers after the vehicle crashed in Queens, N.Y.
(READ the entire list at carnegiehero.org)