The Carnegie Medal is given throughout the United States and Canada to those who risk their lives to an
extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the lives of others.
Tanner Douglas Boslau saved Teresa Samano from drowning, Bend, Oregon, August 7, 2016. On the
Deschutes River, Samano, 58, floated on an inner tube into an impoundment for a hydroelectric dam and
held to a buoyed cable that spanned the river. The 62-degree water flowed toward the dam’s spillway,
which was about 75 feet away, and Samano was about 20 feet from the retaining wall at the closest bank.
On a paddle board upstream, Boslau, 30, service advisor, heard Samano’s family call for help; he paddled
to the cable. Boslau lowered himself, untangled Samano from the cable and inner tube, and directed her to
hold onto his board as he sat atop it. Boslau then grabbed the cable with one hand and towed Samano to
the near bank. Arriving police threw Boslau a rope, and he maneuvered the board against the wall. Police
pulled Samano from the water, then helped Boslau to land.
