PITTSBURGH (AP) — Two Illinois teens who drowned trying to save a third teen from the chilly waters of the Fox River are among 22 people being honored with Carnegie medals for heroism.
Eighteen-year-old Jimmy Avant, of Chicago, and 16-year-old Adrian Alexander Jones, of Maywood, Ill., died trying to save 17-year-old Melvin Choice Jr. from drowning after his paddleboat began to take on water on Nov. 14, 2008. Choice also died.
Thursday’s list includes two other people who died in rescue attempts, 48-year-old Christine Rose Nguyen, of New Brighton, Minn., and 20-year-old Jeremy Dylan McCarroll, of Highlands Ranch, Colo.
Pittsburgh steel baron Andrew Carnegie started the fund in 1904 after hearing rescue stories from a mine disaster that killed 181 people. More than $32 million has been awarded to 9,349 people. Medalists, or their heirs, receive $6,000.
