PITTSBURGH, Pa. - Saint Michael's College softball alumna Ashley Harkins '09 was among 17 citizens recently lauded by the Carnegie Hero Fund with the Carnegie Medal for Heroism, North America's highest honor for civilian heroism, recognizing acts of extraordinary heroism, risking serious injury or death to save others. Harkins, a Connecticut State Police sergeant who was enshrined just last September in the SMC Athletic Hall of Fame, saved a suicidal woman from the Baldwin Bridge in Old Lyme, Conn., in November.
 
On Nov. 27, a woman in her early 60s climbed a 10-foot safety fence on the Baldwin Bridge and sat on a nine-inch-wide concrete ledge 80 feet above the Connecticut River. Harkins, a native of Colchester, Vt., who currently resides in Westbrook, Conn., had finished her shift and was off-duty but responded to the 911 call along with another sergeant. That sergeant attempted to talk to the woman while Harkins scaled the fence behind her with no safety equipment or ropes. She descended the other side to the narrow ledge, scooted a few feet toward the woman, and then maneuvered to have one arm and one leg on either side of her. She gripped the fence and secured the woman to the fence with her body to keep her from falling. Harkins helped place the woman's foot on her thigh for leverage while she grasped the fence with one hand. Harkins pushed the woman up by her foot so she could climb the fence to waiting officers. The woman was cold from exposure to wind and temperatures in the low 50s but was otherwise uninjured. She was taken to a hospital for emergency mental health evaluation. Harkins was not injured during the incident.
 
The Carnegie Medal is given throughout the United States and Canada to those who enter extreme danger while saving or attempting to save the lives of others. With this announcement, the Carnegie Medal has been awarded to 10,422 individuals since the inception of the Pittsburgh-based Fund in 1904. Those in public safety vocations must go beyond their line of duty to be considered. Relevant training or specialized skills on the part of the rescuer are considered against the requirement of extraordinary risk. Each of the recipients or their survivors will receive a financial grant. Throughout the 120 years since the Fund was established by industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, $45 million has been given in one-time grants, scholarship aid, death benefits, and continuing assistance.
 
Harkins remains one of the Saint Michael's softball program's all-time greats, still holding school records for hits, runs, doubles and triples, while turning the rare feat of landing on the all-conference first team at two different positions during her career - shortstop and center field, while also seeing time as a catcher. The two-year captain graduated among the top 10 at Saint Michael's in 28 statistical categories, batting in the heart of the Purple Knight order throughout her four years. Harkins' season home run record, set in 2007, stood for 15 years, and her .342 career batting average is third since the reestablishment of the program in the early 1990s, and sixth all-time.