A Guelph teenager who saved a kayaker from drowning off Collingwood, has been awarded the Carnegie Medal, North America’s highest honor for civilian heroism.
According to the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission , 16-year-old Jamey Ruth Klassen entered the waters of Georgian Bay on July 26 of last year after she overheard someone calling 911 about a kayaker in trouble.
She swam about 180 meters to the man’s overturned kayak, but by the time she reached the area the man had slipped below the surface.
Diving down four metres, she found him at the bottom of the lake and brought him to the surface.
As she held him with one arm, she swam with the other, shouting for help.
Eventually a man on a paddleboard responded and the kayaker was taken to shore where he was revived.