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Award honors heroic efforts

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The Associated Press

Published: July 2, 2009

PITTSBURGH - A 12-year-old Maryland boy who died trying to rescue his younger brother from an icy pond is one of 22 people awarded Carnegie medals for heroism.

Aaron Robinson of Cambridge, Md., fell through ice and drowned attempting to rescue his 8-year-old brother, Jairus, on Feb. 11, 2007. Jairus Robinson also died.

Pittsburgh steel baron Andrew Carnegie started the fund in 1904 after hearing rescue stories from a mine disaster that killed 181 people. Since then, $31.5 million has been awarded to 9,284 people. Medalists or their heirs receive $6,000.

Other recipients:

•Terry Ray Odom, 49, and Richard S. Cameron, 36, both of Naples, saved Ray J. Davis, 55, from drowning when his sport utility vehicle crashed into a golf course lake.

•Thomas Eugene Foust, 17, of Glenview, Ill., saved an 83-year-old woman he pulled from a car stuck on railroad tracks seconds before it was hit by a train.

•Frederick L. Visconti, 65, of Danbury, Conn., saved a neighbor, Robert J. Mitchell, 18, from his burning home.

•Edwin Hernandez, 31, of Reading, Pa., saved a 65-year-old woman who was being attacked in her home by her son.

•Edward Bohan, 31, of Franklin Square, N.Y., rescued John H. Collymore, 58, by pulling him from a sport utility vehicle that had crashed and caught fire in North Hempstead, N.Y.

•R. Jason Altman, 27, of Andrews, S.C., died while helping to save Keith E. Gibson, 39, from suffocating after Gibson lost consciousness in oxygen-deficient air in a chemical dryer Gibson was cleaning in a plant where he worked.

•Tommy Earl Barnhill, 43, of Georgetown, S.C., helped pull Altman from the same chemical dryer when he lost consciousness while helping Gibson.

•Michael P. Schmidt, 38, of Hickory Creek, Texas, saved Alexandra Stuart, 23, from drowning when she accidentally drove her vehicle into Lake Lewisville.

•Richard W. Meserve, 42, of Falmouth, Maine, saved a 9-year-old girl from drowning in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Scarborough, Maine, when currents carried the girl away.

•Dwight A. Moore, 33, of Aliquippa, Pa., saved neighbor Kara M. Freeman, 18, from the top floor of her burning house.

•Casey Marie Peirce, 30, of Calgary, Alberta, saved a man and a woman from drowning as they clung to their capsized canoe, which Peirce pulled to safety by swimming with a rope in the 50-degree water of Spray Lakes Reservoir in Canmore, Alberta.

•George E. Gorton, 45, of Ware, Mass., broke his leg trying to save a 3-year-old girl who was alone in a van coasting down a hill in East Longmeadow, Mass.

•Susan M. Ricard, 37, of Webster, Mass., saved John Benoit, 58, from drowning after his sailboat capsized during a storm on Webster Lake.

•Randall Scott Brewer, 27, of Lancaster, N.H., drowned attempting to rescue an 11-year-old boy from 38-degree water in the Israel River. Brewer pushed the boy to safety.

•Paul Cossalter, 41, of Wrenshall, Minn., died trying to save Joseph P. Kimmes III, 44; his brother, Scott A. Kimmes, 40; and Harold N. Olsen from suffocating from toxic gas in a landfill lift station in Superior, Wis.

•Toby Ames, 38, of Runnells, Iowa, saved Sarah M. Elrod, 21, when he pulled her unconscious from her burning automobile after it collided with a truck in Mitchellville, Iowa.

•David Patrick Rosamilla, 38, of Hollidaysburg, Pa., pulled Ronald L. Weamer from a burning vehicle after it struck a tree in Claysburg, Pa.

•Chloe C. Van Alstine, 17, of Wells, N.Y., helped save William T. Trainor, 48, from drowning when his car crashed into Lake Algonquin.

•Henry W. Mott IV, 42, of Middletown, R.I., and Francis J. Gutierrez, 51, of Middletown, R.I., rescued Keith T. Ulrich, 38, when they pulled him from the burning wreckage of a light aircraft that crashed into some trees.

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