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Help honour those who risk their lives for others

Royal Canadian Humane Association recognizes Canadians who have risked their lives to save others.

My name is Ron Kirstein and I am the official representative of the Royal Canadian Humane Association for British Columbia and the Yukon.

Our National Office is in Edmonton and our current President is Rudy Berghuys who can be contacted at Royal Canadian Humane Association, 11143-70 Street, Edmonton, AB. T5B 1S8 - Phone: 1-780-471-2974, 1-780-499-9945 or E-mail: royalcha@telus.net .

Our association recognizes Canadians who have risked their lives to save others.

Each year we watch the news media to find true Canadian heroes, many of whom are police officers and firemen.

Please have a look at our web site to see more about the work we do. http://www.canadabraveryawards.com/index.html

To accomplish this task we rely on local police and fire reports and media articles to verify exactly what took place as we try to get a clear picture before we give out the awards.

This year, at our Investiture in April, the Lieutenant Governor will be recognizing approximate 40 provincial heroes.

We do feel that we are indeed missing rescues.

Our territory encompasses all of British Columbia and the Yukon.

I am sending this letter to all of the services that interact at ground level with many of these incidents in the hope that you or your organization could relay incidents you witness where the citizens of British Columbia and the Yukon “risk their lives” to save others.

Our awards are issued on these guidelines:  Gold is reserved for deeds of bravery at the cost of the hero’s life; silver and bronze medals are awarded when the rescuer has shown extraordinary disregard for personal safety in saving or attempting to save the life of another; honorary certificates are awarded to commemorate a rescue attempt where the risk is not as great.

If you become aware of rescues that warrant recognition I would be thrilled if you could forward information to me, so that I can initiate the award process.

Here is what I would need:

The names and contact information for each of the rescuers.

Your report on the incident, or your summary of the rescue and who did what. Your recommendation on the degree of risk each rescuer took

Any copies of media stories you have, or links to media stories

All of the information we receive is kept confidential.

If it is possible we need the names and phone numbers of the rescuers (heroes), so that we can contact them when we decide an award is being given.

Ron Kirstein

Royal Canadian Humane Association (British Columbia)