New Jersey man awarded heroism medal remembers saving girl's life from rip current: "You're not gonna die"

The Ocean City, New Jersey, man who saved a girl from a rip current late last year has received a major honor.

Frank LaFerrara, 73, said his lifeguard training from 50 years ago kicked in when he heard a teenage girl swimming in the ocean cry for help.

The grocery store worker was able to tow the girl out of a dangerous rip current and bring her back to the beach, saving her life in October 2025.

On Monday, LaFerrara was one of 18 people across the U.S. and Canada awarded the Carnegie Medal, the top civilian award for heroism in North America.

The Carnegie Hero Fund said everyone recognized this year "risked serious injury or death attempting to save others in acts of extraordinary heroism."

We caught up with Frank on Wednesday after he received the award. Here's a partial recap of Frank's live appearance on CBS News Philadelphia at 9 a.m.

Janelle: This is an amazing honor. Tell us about it and take us back to what happened.

Frank: "Well, I was sitting on the beach, just sunning. And I saw this young lady, and it was dangerous that day. In fact, my rescue was the second one that day. There were four people that had to get rescued about an hour before mine. And I just saw her and she was getting swept out by this rip current, but she wasn't trying to do anything to swim out of it.

I said: 'I got to go.'"

Janelle: And so what did you do?

Frank: "I took a lifeguard course around 50 years ago, and I just swam out there and kept my eye on her, there was no time to get rescue equipment. And I got to her and of course, people panic. And she jumped on top of me and pushed me underwater, and screaming, 'I don't want to die, I don't want to die.' 

I calmed her down and I said 'relax, calm down. You're not gonna die, I'm here.' And I said I'm gonna get you in very slowly, a little at a time.

You kind of have to swim parallel to the shore. You don't swim straight in on a rip current. And I took my time, and I couldn't let her go, cause she'd go right underwater again. So I held her on with one arm, and I just paddled the best I could with the other one.

Once in awhile a wave came, and I just let it push us in a little bit more. I said OK, here comes a wave, let it push us in a couple more feet, and we had about two or three waves to do that with. 

I finally got her to where I could stand up and I could catch my breath. A nice young man from a store on the boardwalk called By the Sea came out with a float, and we walked her in from there."

Janelle: There's so many times that we cover stories like these and they don't end with happy endings. Tell us about what it means to get this honor, the Carnegie Medal.

Frank: "It's overwhelming, it's really overwhelming... My biggest reward is when she came up to me later on, and said thank you. And looked into my eyes, that was it for me.

She was a young lady too, she had a lot of living to do yet, and because of me, she can do it."