A mother woke up around 4 a.m. to find flames blocking the only way out of her second-story apartment. She grabbed her two daughters, ran to a bedroom window and started screaming for help. Nearby, Joe Hollins was sleeping outside with his wife when he heard her. Joe ran toward the burning building and stood beneath the window while the mother made an impossible decision: she was going to have to drop her children to a complete stranger. She lowered her 16-month-old daughter first, then her 8-year-old, and Joe managed to catch them both safely. With the fire still spreading, the mother eventually had no choice but to jump too. The family lost nearly everything in that fire, but because one man sleeping outside nearby chose to run toward the danger, they all made it out alive. His name is Joe Hollins, and he deserves some recognition for what he did that night.

A 3-year-old boy fell nearly 50 feet down a well so narrow that none of the adult rescuers could fit inside. Firefighters tried digging around it and even brought in heavy equipment, but the little boy was still trapped far below and they were running out of options. That’s when 14-year-old Cristian Becheanu stepped forward. Cristian was small enough to fit, so rescuers tied a rope around his legs and slowly lowered him headfirst into the shaft. He disappeared deeper and deeper until he finally reached the 3-year-old at the bottom. Cristian grabbed hold of him, and the rescuers above began pulling both boys back toward the surface. Minutes later, Cristian emerged still holding the little boy he had gone down to save. Gabriel was taken to the hospital conscious and survived. Cristian was only 14, but when no one else could reach him, he became the one person who could. That’s the kind of young hero people should know about.