Madeline “Amy” Sweeney Award for Civilian Bravery (2009)
This year marks the 25th Anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, in which at least 206 people with ties to Massachusetts perished. The first flights to be hijacked took off from Boston Logan International Airport. Madeline “Amy” Sweeney, a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11, displayed extraordinary cool under extreme pressure during the hijacking. The Massachusetts 9/11 Fund Blog is profiling the Sweeney Award recipients for the past quarter century every week leading up to the naming of the 2026 Honoree(s) at the 25th Anniversary Commemoration on September 11th.
Dorchester crossing guard dies shielding student from speeding car
For eight years, Marie Conley assisted hundreds of children in the streets around Mathers Elementary School in Dorchester. She often stayed after her shift ended to keep kids company while they waited for their parents to arrive.
On October 21, 2008, Marie was working at the intersection of Parish and Winter Streets. She halted traffic to lead a student through the crosswalk and saw a vehicle barreling towards them.
Marie shielded the 10-year-old boy with her own body before she was struck by the vehicle. The single mother of four and grandmother to five sustained massive head and body trauma, leading to her death eight days later.
The Boston Police Department said Marie was the first crossing guard in the city’s history to lose her life while performing her duties.
Marie Conley was recognized in 2011 by America’s surviving Congressional Medal of Honor recipients, who awarded her a posthumous Citizen Service Before Self Honors, one of the nation’s highest awards for civilians. Her son, Christopher, a Marine serving in Iraq when his mother was hospitalized, accepted the honor at Arlington Cemetery before more than 90 Medal of Honor recipients.
“If she was here, she wouldn’t be accepting these rewards,” Christopher told The Dorchester Reporter at the time. “She did things because they were the right thing to do, that’s how she lived. If she was here, she’d say she was just doing her job.”
Christopher is now a firefighter at a firehouse opened in 2024 near where his mother was hit. A garden memorial honors his mother.
“It was from a place of immense love that she gave her life to protect a student from an oncoming car,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said at the dedication. “Without a second thought Marie put herself in harm’s way to keep a child safe…I get emotional thinking about what it means to be a mom, to have your own kids, and love everyone else’s kids just as much as your own in order to make that sacrifice.”
Next week: Uxbridge four aid woman who is trapped after crash in car on fire