PITTSBURGH (AP) — A Philadelphia teenager who drowned trying to save a friend in the tidal currents of the Delaware River is one of 19 people being honored with Carnegie medals for heroism.
Seventeen-year-old William Wilkinson died last year trying to save 18-year-old Jennifer Torres. Other people nearby rescued Torres and a man who had jumped into the water to help her but couldn't save Wilkinson.
Other medal winners are from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Oregon, Alabama, New Mexico, California, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Canada.
Medalists or their heirs receive financial grants approved by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission. More than $34 million has been awarded to nearly 10,000 honorees since the fund's inception in 1904. New recipients are announced four times a year.
Steel baron Andrew Carnegie started the fund after hearing rescue stories from a mine disaster that killed 181 people.
