BENTONVILLE -- Tanya "Tawny" Hinton posthumously received a national award for heroism Monday for her Aug. 29, 2022, attempt to save a drowning boy.
Hinton, who was 47, drowned after plunging into swirling water sweeping into a Bentonville drainage pipe at a retention pond while she searched for Alexander "Cade" Law, 11, according to the award citation and news accounts.
The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission of Pittsburgh named Hinton and 16 others from across the United States as the award's latest recipients, the first of the foundation's awards this year.
Rescuers in Canada are also eligible for the award. Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie established the fund in 1904 to recognize those who risk death or serious physical injury to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the lives of others. The award includes an unspecified amount of financial support for the awardee or the awardee's survivors, according to the citation.
Hinton, who was a social worker, and one other of Monday's 17 awardees died in their attempts, the award announcement says.
Cade, his twin brother and one of Hinton's two sons were playing in the rain when Law slipped, fell and disappeared while caught in the suction of the drainage pipe, according to news accounts. After attempting to rescue his brother, the surviving twin ran for help to his mother and Hinton. Both adults swam into the pond to search. Hinton was last seen conscious when she deliberately went underwater in the same turbulent area where Law disappeared in the pond near Walton Crossing Apartments, north of Southeast 28th Street, according to witnesses.
Arriving rescue workers found Hinton unconscious 20 yards through the drainage pipe, near a manhole. She never regained consciousness before life support was withdrawn five days later, the award citation reads. Cade was found farther down the drainage system and pronounced dead at the hospital the day of the drowning.
The nonprofit commission has granted more than 10,000 awards in its 120-year history, distributing $45 million to date in grants, scholarship aid, death benefits and continuing assistance.
Monday's announcement with a link to Hinton's citation is available at www.carnegiehero.org/heroes/latest-award-announcements.