Pair of drowning victims receive prestigious medal for heroism
(Seguin) — Two summers ago, a pair of adults drowned in the Guadalupe River. Today, the heroic efforts of these individuals are being officially recognized with the delivery of the Carnegie Medal, a medal said to be North America’s highest civilian honor for heroism.
The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission awards the Carnegie Medal to individuals from throughout the United States and Canada who risk themselves to an extraordinary degree saving or attempting to save the lives of others.
Those being honored posthumously are Victor Villanueva and Casandra Joann Kendrick. Both drowned while saving two small children during a June 13, 2021, fishing trip at the Guadalupe River bridge on FM 1117.
Villanueva, a 30-year-old lumberyard worker from New Braunfels had taken his three sons, ages 9, 6, and 5, to fish in the Seguin River. Another group of people on the tiny island that day included Kendrick a 22-year-old retail clerk. While wading, the 9-year-old stepped into water 15 feet deep near an undertow. In an attempt to reach the boy, his brothers also entered deep water. Villanueva swam to the boy and passed him to another woman who had responded from Kendrick’s party. That woman brought the boy to safety. Kendrick and another woman swam to the younger boys, the other woman using a child’s floatie. While one of the boys held onto the floatie, Kendrick handed the other boy to the other woman, who brought both boys to safety. However before they were able to return to shore, Villanueva and Kendrick submerged and drowned. The boys were unharmed.
Carnegie Hero Fund President Eric Zahren says both Villanueva and Kendrick are among the 16 individuals to be recognized this quarter. He says from their perspective in operating the commission, this is an exercise in examining humanity and looking at these cases where rescuers risk or lose their lives. He says they assess and recognize their mortal and moral choice that they make at that moment and only that moment alone.
“These two individuals saw that there were other lives in danger of being lost and without hesitation, they acted and they acted in a way that they put themselves in peril. So, in this case, it’s not always the case, it’s the same peril affecting the victim but in this case it was. There were children that were drowning. Their lives were at risk and these two individuals Mr. Villanueva and Ms. Kendrick immediately acted to put themselves at equal peril of the victims and in so doing (it), they put the victims’ lives at equal importance to their own and that’s that mortal choice and moral choice and in this case, it cost both of these individuals their own lives to save the young children and those young children will now hopefully live full lives but they will now live on but only because of the sacrifice of these two individuals,” said Zahren.
It was in 1904 when Andrew Carnegie first wrote in the opening lines of the commission’s founding deed of trust, “We live in a heroic age. Not seldom are we thrilled by deeds of heroism where men or women are injured or lose their lives in attempting to preserve or rescue their fellows.”
To better explain the elite honor of receiving this award, it should be noted that to date, more than 10,000 medals have been awarded. That’s 10,000 recipients selected from more than 100,000 nominees over the past 119 years.
Zahren says of those 10,000 medals, only 20 percent of those medals have been awarded posthumously just as they will be for Villanueva and Kendrick.
“In the case of these two individuals, they made the ultimate sacrifice and a verse from the Gospel of John appears on the back of every Carnegie Medal we’ve all heard it many times before but it states that “there is ‘no greater love than to lay down a life for a friend.” In these cases and all posthumous cases where a Carnegie Medal is awarded — these heroes have taken it one step further and in many cases have acted on behalf of a stranger,” said Zahren.
Zahren says the prestigious recognition comes with a medal for heroism and also a small financial grant – both will be given in this case to the next of kin. He says the medal in their view is priceless. He says it’s never been about money or a financial grant. He says it was very important to Carnegie that neither the hero nor a dependent of the hero would suffer as a result from that split-second decision by the hero to put their life at risk.
“We do three essential things. We recognize heroism, civilian heroes in the U.S. and Canada. We support those heroes and their dependents but that as importantly, we also tell these stories because it was important to our founder Andrew Carnegie and it remains very important to us till this day that these stories are told, others hear these stories, and that it may compel within others in our society to look at each other differently, to maybe act themselves in a slightly different way toward their fellow human beings and by virtue of that domino effect, if you will, change society for the better and that was Carnegie’s lofty goal for the commission. It’s individual focused but it really has and continues to have wider implications and goals that we continue to practice and work toward,” said Zahren.
Kendrick’s father, Lee Estep, says at first, he wasn’t too sure about the organization or what they wanted to do. He says it wasn’t until after a little research that he quickly realized the significance. Meanwhile, having been a complete stranger to this family on that day, Estep says he is not surprised at all by his daughter’s heroic efforts. He says although the medal is not expected to be delivered until a couple of more months, he already has a special place for it and can’t wait to hold it in his hands.
“The other part I learned, the backside of it, is actually personalized with her name and information and stuff is on the backside of the coin. I’ve already gotten a little area set up where we’ve put the things that have been given (to us) because a lot of people have come across (over time) and have given us their condolences,” said Lee.
Villanueva’s wife Norma Luna says she too was overwhelmed when she received the news. She says the Carnegie Hero Medal only solidifies what everyone already knew.
“So many emotions. We all know he was a hero. He is a hero. It brought me a lot of peace, happiness, tears, of course. Just to know that even though he is not with us anymore, he is still being honored in some way and that’s never going to go away,” said Luna.
Luna says not only is she grateful that her husband is being recognized but that Kendrick is also getting the recognition. She says, after all, it was her three sons that were saved on that day.
“Oh my gosh, yes! I’ve always expressed this to them — till this day, you know we still keep in contact but I’m just so so thankful and grateful for her, for her family, for all them because they all had a part of it and just the way that they raised her, the kind of woman she was and how brave she was, I’m so so thankful and grateful to them and I just feel like I owe them so much,” said Luna.
Luna says there’s no forgetting that day two years ago. However knowing that her husband and Kendrick will forever be remembered as national heroes, it makes things just a tad bit easier and is forever grateful to the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission.
“I’m kind of speechless when it comes to it. It’s amazing for what they do for families who are going through something we never pictured or would want to go through. It’s just an honor for what they do for us and the little bit of peace that they can bring us in these type of situations and the happiness and things just like that. I just think it’s amazing of what they do,” said Luna.
Out of the 16 recipients being awarded this quarter from the national organization, only four are from Texas.