Minnesotans honored with Carnegie medals for life-saving efforts

Two Minnesotans are being honored with Carnegie medals for saving men from drowning last year in two separate incidents. Last December, a Sauk Centre high school student rescued an ATV rider who went through the ice. The other awardee managed to tow a man to shore in the rushing current of the Mississippi River in May.

Author:
BMTN Staff
Updated:
Mar 8, 2018
Original:
Sep 20, 2012

Two Minnesotans are being honored with Carnegie medals for heroism Thursday, the Star Tribune says.

Seventeen-year-old Kali Jo Arnzen of Sauk Centre and 32-year-old Anthony S. Johnson of Farmington will both be recognized for saving men from drowning in two separate incidents.

The St. Cloud Times reports Arnzen, a Sauk Centre high school student, saved Travis Ritter from drowning after his ATV went through the ice on Fairy Lake last December. The 17-year-old used her ice skates as picks and threw Ritter her jacket to pull him to safety.

Johnson managed to rescue 56-year-old Oscar Haddorff from being swept downstream in the Mississippi River near Red Wing in May 2011, according to the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission's website. Johnson dove into 62-degree water and towed Haddorff, who outweighed him, in a rushing current.