Star of Courage

• Awarded on: March 16, 1981
• Invested on: June 19, 1981

Fernand Ouellette saved a woman from drowning in the Saint-Maurice River at Trois-Rivières, Québec, on March 14, 1980. A number of people observed the victim jumping from the bridge into the water during a heavy snowstorm and then clinging to the ice some three hundred feet from the river bank. Mr. Ouellette arrived at the scene, quickly appraised the situation and amidst gusting winds and driving snow, ran down to the water's edge, broke a tree branch with which to feel for thin ice, and inched his way along the frozen surface to the woman who was then nearing exhaustion. He was able to grab her by the wrists, to haul her onto the ice, then to drag her to the safety of the shore.