David MacFarlane rescued a five-year-old boy from the ice on the Bonnechère River at Eganville, Ontario, on 10 November 1976. The child had wandered some twenty feet from shore and had fallen into fifteen feet of water. Mr. MacFarlane, who was driving by at that time, stopped his car at the scene. He tried to cross the ice, but it broke under his weight, and he was forced to break it with one arm while swimming with the other. Sustaining cuts to his arm, he persisted until he reached the boy, lifted him from the water, and took him to shore.