Not many heroes get a medal, but Christopher Skeet’s will be arriving by mail.
Skeet, a classroom counselor at The Camelot School for special-needs students in Des Plaines, jumped into the flooded Des Plaines River to rescue a student during the deluge of September 2008. For his actions that day, he was recently awarded the Carnegie Medal from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission.
The 32-year-old received a letter at home a couple weeks ago notifying him of the award, which includes a bronze medal and $5,000. One call to Mom and Dad ensured it wouldn’t remain a secret.
“Of course, my parents told the whole world, so I didn’t have to do much work on that end,” he said, laughing.
They told friends and family of the day a student with a disability and a history of emotional problems ran away from school and climbed onto a retaining wall above the flooded river. Skeet and Camelot Principal Sheila Deal found the student there and were trying to talk him down when he plunged in.
Skeet jumped in after the student and managed to grab hold of his collar. The two were carried well downstream before Skeet was able to fight the raging current just enough to drag them both to the riverbank, where Deal and others had formed a human chain.
Deal said she learned something about Skeet that day.
“He will go above and beyond to ensure the welfare of those around him,” the principal said. “Thank goodness he is very strong and able to do that.”
Despite his feat, Skeet describes himself as merely a decent swimmer — “no Michael Phelps.”
But he is a former Marine, and in the Corps he had to practice pulling comrades out of the water in full gear. Skeet said he served at an airbase in Japan and at embassies in Cameroon and Norway before completing his five-year commitment in 2003. He soon thereafter found his way to teaching.
“It sounds cheesy, but I felt it was my calling,” he said. “It’s what I enjoy doing and it’s my passion.”
Skeet is scheduled to graduate with a master’s degree in education history from University of Illinois at Chicago in May and just completed an unpaid student teaching stint at Foreman High School in Chicago.
So the money from the award comes at a good time; Skeet accumulated quite a few bills in the past few months. He plans to use the leftover cash on a trip to Europe.
His medal, a bronze medallion featuring the profile of 19th-century steel tycoon and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, needs to be engraved and will arrive sometime in June.
The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission gives out the award quarterly “to recognize persons who perform acts of heroism in civilian life.”
“This is not an award for saving a life. It’s an award for risking your life in the process of saving that life,” said commission Executive Director Walter Rutkowski.
More than 9,000 people have won the Hero Award since its inception in 1904 — including, last year, Elgin High School teacher Walter “Mike” Gannon, who came to the rescue of colleague Carolyn Gilbert when she was stabbed by a student in January 2008. The Carnegie Hero Commission has distributed more than $32 million to winners and their families. About 20 percent are awarded posthumously.
