Mayor honours pair who rescued little girl, father from Red River in August

A “proud and thankful” Mayor Scott Gillingham honoured two Winnipeggers Friday who rescued a young girl who fell into the Red River last month.

Gillingham said he was humbled to meet Jayclyn Morrissette and Brady Saunders before he presented them with the Mayor’s Award of Valour for saving the child and her father, who jumped into the water in an attempt to help his daughter and nearly drowned.

“These are the kind of people who we have in our city,” he said. “When someone is in need, they’ll step up, risk their own lives, to help someone they’ve never met in their life.”

Morrissette and Saunders were at St. John’s Park in the evening on Aug. 24, when they saw the man and child in the river.

Morrissette jumped in to retrieve the girl and realized the father was in trouble, as well. She got both back to the riverbank and she and Saunders performed CPR on the girl until first responders arrived.

Morrissette, a mother, said when she saw the girl in the river, she reacted immediately.

“That’s the reason why I did it, because of my daughter,” she said.”Because I’m a mom, when I saw that little girl in the water, all I could picture was mine, when she was small, at that age. I couldn’t let that happen.”

She said it was “kind of crazy” when reflecting on it later.

“I didn’t think of it at that time, who depended on me, but I would do it again,” she said, adding she has met with the girl and her father since, and plans to keep in touch.

“Most people would consider it a trauma bond, but I consider it like a new family,” she said.

The medal is presented to individuals who have personally sacrificed their own well-being to save or assist a Winnipeg resident who is in grave danger or distress.

Before Friday’s ceremony, the medal — introduced by former mayor Sam Katz — had been presented to only four people, beginning in 2008, to Dale Kasper and Toby Tutkaluk, who rescued Lisa Klassen, sister of Olympic speedskater Cindy Klassen, after her car flipped onto the frozen Red River.

In 2009, Katz presented the award to Winnipeg’s “homeless hero” Faron Hall after he rescued 19-year-old Joseph Mousseau, who fell into the icy Red River from the Provencher Bridge.

And in 2010, Katz presented it to Darren Greengrass, who helped rescue a woman threatening to jump from the Canadian Wheat Board Building on Main Street.

Gillingham said the father and daughter Morrissette and Saunders helped are “relatively new” to the city. They were invited, but unable to attend Friday’s ceremony at city hall.

Morrissette’s mother, Anne, was there, fighting back tears as she spoke to media.

“I told her I was so proud of her,” she said, looking at her daughter. “And thank you for doing what you did, because this is how I raise my children; to do whatever needs to be done to help somebody else.”

Gillingham said Morrissette and Saunders have big hearts.

“I couldn’t be prouder of them,” he said. “And I don’t think I’m alone in this. I speak for every Winnipegger.”

morgan.modjeski@freepress.mb.ca