Sophia Grace LeBlanc, Amherst, Nova Scotia

On November 11, 2018, six-year-old Sophia LeBlanc and her two younger siblings were passengers in a vehicle driven by their mother along Highway 204 in Little River, Cumberland County. The vehicle lost control and plunged over an embankment landing on its roof a river. Sophia’s siblings, a two-year-old sister and four-year-old brother, were trapped upside down in the vehicle. Her little brother was also unconscious. Her mother was injured and could not help free the children from the vehicle. Sophia unbuckled her two-year-old sister’s car seat restraint and got her out of the vehicle to safety. Then Sophia climbed onto her mother’s back to boost herself up to the embankment and flagged down help for her family still trapped in the vehicle.

Miss LeBlanc demonstrated extreme bravery by placing herself in danger in an unknown depth of cold water before running to the road to flag down help.

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Elijah Joseph Watts, Port Hood, Nova Scotia

In the early morning of May 12, 2018, eighteen-year-old Elijah Watts was lobster fishing on the Ocean Star with his father and another fisherman when their vessel capsized off the shore of Colindale in the Gulf of the Saint Lawrence. All three men were thrown overboard. Mr. Watts stayed in the frigid, rough water, without any regard for his own safety to try and help the other two men.

Mr. Watts remained calm and displayed tremendous strength, exemplary courage and bravery trying to help others in a dangerous and stressful situation.