Comments (0) Best Citizen(s) - 2012
Jarvise Shelton and Kyle Hardman
Jarvise Shelton and Kyle Hardman were working on a towboat near downtown on the evening of June 12 when they saw a family on a lifeless vessel drifting toward a moored barge. The two rivermen inflated a raft and set out to try to rescue the men and children on the runaway craft. But the current was so strong it soon capsized their raft. Shelton, from far southern Illinois, managed to grab hold of a rope and pull himself to safety. Hardman, of Kentucky, wasn't so lucky. The river dragged him under the barge to his death. Meanwhile, another nearby tugboat arrived on the scene, and the crew tossed ring buoys to the family moments before the boat was sucked under the barge. "This truly is an example of Good Samaritans and epitomized the riverman's code," Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Colin Fogarty said of Shelton's and Hardman's heroics. "You see someone in distress, you try to assist."
