John F. Kennedy photo

Remarks Upon Presenting Lifesaving Awards to Members of the School Safety Patrol

May 11, 1962

I SPEAK in behalf of all of us to all of you and tell you how proud we are to have you here.

I want to express my compliments to the American Automobile Association for giving recognition to this work. All of us have seen these boys and girls all around the country, working with their fellow students, and we've admired them.

In addition, all of us--and I want to stress this particularly--regard courage as perhaps the outstanding of the human virtues and particularly in all these cases as I have read them, they required immediate reaction, not a deliberate one.

So you are what we depend upon, and I'm glad to see some attention being given to the good deeds of our young people--and we want to congratulate you.

We have the Prime Minister of Norway here as our guest, and I want him to join me for this ceremony. Prime Minister, we are decorating five young people who have displayed great courage, and I wonder if you would stand here with me and just observe one of the pleasures of this Office.

We are glad to have you all here and I hope that your example encourages others-and we hope we will do this next year again, too,

Note: The presentations were made by the President in a ceremony in the Rose Garden at the White House. Recipients of the AAA gold lifesaver medals were: Ralph S. Brannin, Pinellas Park, Fla.; Wayne Brown, New York, N.Y.; Wesley Haines, Dayton, Ohio; Patricia A. Miller, Hereford, Pa.; and John N. Puhak, Hazleton, Pa.

Prime Minister Einar Gerhardsen of Norway greeted each of the young people with a handshake as the President pinned on the medals.

John F. Kennedy, Remarks Upon Presenting Lifesaving Awards to Members of the School Safety Patrol Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/236623

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