Colorado man receives Carnegie Hero Fund award for saving woman and dogs from icy pond
A Northern Colorado man received a big national award for heroism this week for saving a woman and her two dogs from a freezing pond last year.
Judd Bronson, 52, was walking along the Poudre Trail near a partially ice-covered pond in Windsor on Jan. 27, 2025, when he heard faint calls for help. He saw a woman and two golden retrievers struggling in the pond and sprang into action.
Bronson grabbed three large sticks and walked about 75 feet across the ice to the woman and the dogs, who were struggling to stay afloat. As the ice got thinner, Bronson laid down the sticks and lay on them to distribute his weight, crawling another 75 feet or so to the unfrozen section of the pond.
He tried to get the woman to grab one of the sticks, but she was unresponsive. He hooked the stick into the hood of her parka and pulled her out of the pond and onto the ice. The dogs followed to the edge of the ice, and Bronson was able to pull each one out of the water.
At that point, first responders had arrived, as Bronson had shouted at a witness to call 911. The woman, later identified as 41-year-old Tara Vreeland, was taken to the hospital. Her body temperature was 83 degrees, and she was freezing and exhausted, but otherwise uninjured. Her dogs, Summit and Saint, were also OK.
Vreeland later said that her dog, Saint, ran toward and then fell into the water, and while she was trying to get Saint out, she fell in herself, taking Summit with her.
"He just b-lined it for that water," Vreeland told CBS News Colorado about a month after the ordeal. "I didn't have a moment's hesitation to go out and get him. I just ran out there. I didn't think."
While in the water, the dogs were panicking, pushing her under. "I've never been so scared," she recalled at the time.
Witness Lou Palangi called 911 and watched Bronson pull Vreeland out of the water.
"My eyes were closing, and I was going to sleep. I will never forget this, but I heard him in my ear saying, 'grab the stick!' I will never forget hearing him," Vreeland said.
"He risked his life for me," she continued. "I have two superheroes, two guardian angels. I am lucky."
Bronson received a lifesaving award from Windsor Severance Fire Rescue last year, and then was recognized for his heroism this week by the Carnegie Hero Fund, which describes the recognition as "North America's highest civilian honor for heroism."
A plaque is in the process of being made, a Carnegie Hero Fund Commission spokesperson said.
Bronson politely declined an interview with CBS Colorado last year and didn't immediately respond to a follow-up request on Wednesday.
"There will never be words big enough to fully capture what Judd did that day," Vreeland told CBS Colorado on Wednesday. "He didn't hesitate. He saw our lives in danger and chose to act, risking his own life. Because of his heroism, I'm here. Summit and Saint are here. And our family still has us. That kind of selflessness changes you and I'll be forever grateful. The Carnegie Medal recognizes that kind of extraordinary courage and Judd deserves every bit of it."
He joins 17 other people in the U.S. and Canada recognized by the Hero Fund this year for heroism last year, including a researcher in Ottawa who pulled a 6-year-old boy from the Rideau River, a Ukrainian refugee who pulled a man from a car in a New York marina, and an aircraft mechanic in Georgia who pulled a trapped 11-year-old girl from the flaming wreckage of a crash involving a dump truck.
In Colorado, previous winners include professional slackliner Mickey Wilson, who climbed a chairlift pole at Arapahoe Basin to cut free an unconscious man whose backpack got stuck on a chairlift, choking him; and Colorado State Trooper Daniel Harrison Haley, who was off-duty when he saved a 10-year-old boy from drowning in an icy pond in Greeley in 2010.
