The Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Hero Fund Commission has honoured two Canadians with medals for heroism.
Calvin Bradley Stein of Madoc, Ontario and Clark Whitecalf of Gallivan, Saskatchewan, were among the latest batch of 21 people awarded the prestigious prize set up by the late steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in 1904.
Whitecalf, 41, was honoured for rescuing a sleeping 18-year-old woman from a burning house in August 2015.
Stein, 51, Ont., received a medal for saving a 3-year-old girl from being trampled by a spooked team of ponies at a fairground in Tweed, Ont., in July and was himself injured in the incident.
Carnegie was inspired to create the prize, which also pays out grants, including scholarship aid and continuing assistance, by stories of heroism during a coal mine disaster at Harwick, Pa., that killed 181 people, including a miner and an engineer who died trying to rescue others.
Within three months of the explosion, Carnegie established a $5 million trust and appointed a 21-member commission to oversee the selection and award process.
“I do not expect to stimulate or create heroism by this fund, knowing well that heroic action is impulsive,” Carnegie wrote. “But I do believe 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,”
The fund has given away US$38.7 million to 9,914 awardees or their families since 1904.
With files from The Canadian Press
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