America's Heroes: Carnegie Fund Picks 24

They risked their lives trying to save others
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Dec 17, 2015 7:38 AM CST
America's Heroes: Carnegie Fund Picks 24
In this March 25, 2015, file photo, Jon Meis of Renton, Wash., is presented with a Citizen Service Before Self medal during a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.   (Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Two dozen real-life heroes are being honored by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission of Pittsburgh for their acts of bravery. The commission investigates stories of heroism and awards medals and cash several times a year. It has given away $37.7 million to 9,821 awardees or their families since 1904. A sampling of the new honorees:

  • Jon Meis, 22, of Renton, Wash., saved an indeterminate number of people during a campus shooting in Seattle on June 5, 2014. He pepper-sprayed and tackled a gunman as the assailant paused to reload his shotgun at Seattle Pacific University. (He also got another kind of thank you.)

  • William Driscoll, 34, of Middleboro, Mass., stopped a runaway vehicle with an unresponsive driver on a highway by ramming it with his own on Sept. 15, 2014.
  • The Olson family of Jefferson, SD, helped a woman being threatened by her husband with a gun on May 10, 2014. Gary Olson, 64, wife Mary Olson, 54, and Shelby Olson, 20, stopped and let the woman into their car. The man shot at them, injuring Shelby Olson.
  • Helen Goulet, 72, of British Columbia, saved an 89-year-old woman from a house fire.
  • Laurence Norton, 47, of New Orleans, rescued a woman being stabbed by a man with a large kitchen knife on Oct. 27, 2014, in the city. Norton grabbed the woman away from the man in a parking lot, tussled with the man and helped her into his dentist's office, administering first aid.
  • Wayne Hoffman, 66, of Spring Green, Wis., died on Dec. 23, 2014, trying to save a man struggling in the waters of Lake Superior in Minnesota.
Click for the full list. (More Jon Meis stories.)

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