Heroes of the Week: 4 NH Heroes Who Saved a Boy from a Vicious Dog Attack

 This week's heroes are 4 men in New Hampshire who paid attention when they heard a dog attacking a boy and jumped into action. One was a police officer, one was the uncle of the boy, and the other two were neighbors. Sadly, two of the heroes passed later in other incidents. They were all being honored in May 2026 in New Hampshire. 

Honoring 4 NH Heroes who jumped into action to save boy from dog attack in 2025

By Gabriel Perry Union Leader Staff May 26, 2026

Matthew Buchan was sitting in his room when he heard the commotion. A woman was running and yelling, “The dog’s got the boy!”

It was April 30, 2025, and that boy — 8-year-old Camden Mathieu — was under attack from two dogs on Lake Avenue in Manchester, New Hampshire. Buchan sprang into action, exiting his home, quickly identifying the ongoing struggle and intervening.

“I just leaped over the fence, I saw them chewing on him and I just leapt into action,” Buchan said. Despite suffering serious injuries to his hand during the altercation, Buchan likely saved Camden’s life.

“I saw tendons,” Buchan said. “I saw it all.”

Buchan, kicking at the two dogs to get them away from the boy, fell back onto his back and side.

“I couldn’t push myself up,” he said. “I saw his teeth, his eyes — that pit bull was coming for me.”

That’s when Eric Harnum, who Buchan described as his stepfather, jumped in, striking the pit bull with a shovel.

Camden suffered serious injuries during the attack, but survived.

On Thursday morning, Buchan and Harnum, along with Rob DeCesare of Nashua and Manchester Police Officer Gregory Levesque, will be honored as New Hampshire Heroes at the Rex Theatre in Manchester. Each spring, the New Hampshire Union Leader, in conjunction with Citizens Bank, honors residents who have risked their lives to save or attempt to save the life of another person during the previous year.

Harnum will be honored posthumously. He died in June 2025.

DeCesare will also be honored posthumously. He was killed while shielding others from gunfire during a shooting at Nashua’s Sky Meadow Country Club on Sept. 20, 2025.

Levesque is being honored for pulling a crash victim out of a burning car on Interstate 93 in Londonderry while he was off duty June 26, 2025.

After the attack 

As Buchan walked back toward his house, Manchester Police arrived. He later went to a local hospital for treatment after experiencing pain as the adrenaline wore off. Still, he wasn’t concerned about himself, he said.

If it had been his child in that situation, he said, he hopes others would act the same.

“I went and saw (Camden) in the hospital,” Buchan said. They gifted the boy an Xbox and controllers among other things in the coming days. He still sees the child every once in a while.

“He’s my little buddy,” Buchan said. “I think he’s going to be my little buddy for life.”

Cathy Buchan, the longtime partner of Harnum, said he was a giving person and a good man who would offer the shirt off his back to someone in need.

“I’m amazed with them,” she said. “I saw my son getting mauled by a dog and I saw a little boy getting mauled by a dog. The noise was terrible. I’m very proud of them. What they did is remarkable.”

“Matt and Eric didn’t hesitate to go in there,” Cathy Buchan said. “I’m very proud of both of them.”

Heroes of the Week: Muslim Youth Group Helps Clean National Parks Amid Government Shutdown

   If you've been reading the news, you know the now former head of the U.S. Department of Interior, Ryan Zinke was told to keep National Parks open during the government shutdown, despite furloughing (laying off) park employees. He did, and tourists decimated them (thanks GOP).  However, out of a tragedy came this week's heroes - groups of Muslim Youth who pitched in to help clean the mess made by other Americans. These kids are heroes.  Here's the story:
 
 OPEN, UNMANNED PARKS TRASHED - Visitors left overflowing trash in campsites, bringing wildlife in for food to areas where animals would not previously visit. They actually did #1 and #2 on the sides of the roads in National Parks - How disgusting! They tossed trash in the parks. They went off-roading into protected areas and destroyed them. You can read about it on-line.HERE
   SO WHO HELPED CORRECT IT? Some Muslim Youth Groups in the U.S. The very group of people that the Conservatives are trying to make U.S. citizen fear and hate. Muslim kids organized and went to National Parks and cleaned up the disgusting TRASH left behind by Christian people.  Don't expect anyone with a MAGA hat out there cleaning the parks. Just saying.

Here's the story.

(photo: Volunteers Alexandra (R) and Ruth Degen prepare to clean a restroom at Joshua Tree National Park on January 4, 2019 in Joshua Tree National Park, California.Credit:CNN)


Muslim Youth Group Helps Clean National Parks Amid Government Shutdown 

(CNN)On a rainy Saturday in Philadelphia, as the partial government shutdown continued, volunteers picked up trash outside Independence Hall, birthplace of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Across the country, dozens of their colleagues in the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association were doing the same at national parks closed or partially closed by the shutdown. They cleaned up litter, emptied garbage cans and swept the grounds -- from the Everglades National Park in Florida to Joshua Tree, California and the Cuyahoga Valley, Ohio.

The group hit the National Mall in Washington on Sunday morning.

"Service to our nation and cleanliness are important parts of Islam," said Dr. Madeel Abdullah, president of youth group, in a press release. "We could not sit idly by as our national parks collected trash. We will lead by example and dispose of this garbage appropriately and invite all Americans to join us in these parks and others across the nation."

Group members were joined by people from the general public who contacted the group through social media, spokesperson Salaam Bhatti told CNN, adding that the response to their efforts has been "overwhelmingly positive."

Bhatti said members regularly participate in community cleanups, carried out as part of their faith. The group has logged almost 200,000 hours in clean-up projects since 2016, according to Bhatti.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association is the largest of its kind in the US, with more than 70 chapters and 5,000 members, all males aged 7 to 40.

Bhatti said more than 60 percent of Americans do not personally know a Muslim, and community efforts like these increase dialogue with members of other religious groups.

Muslim youth group members help clean up national parks during the government shutdown.

"I hope it shows that we're not here just to talk about Islam the whole time," Bhatti said. "We're here to be part of America." 

National Parks have been largely closed to the public since the shutdown began December 22. In a press release Sunday, the National Park Service said it had "explored a number of options to address the maintenance and sanitation issues that have arisen at a number of highly visited parks," and will now use fee revenues to clean up trash and restrooms.

"We are taking this extraordinary step to ensure that parks are protected, and that visitors can continue to access parks with limited basic services," the statement said.

Bhatti told CNN that if the shutdown continues, they will be looking for other national parks to help clear and for more ways they can help community members affected by the shutdown.

An important part of Islam is to help "wipe away the tears of our neighbors during time of distress," he said. "We are humbly serving our nation at a time when many tears are being shed.

Fascinating Book: Heroes, Gods and Monsters of Greek Myths

Since I was a kid, I've always been fascinated with the Greek and Roman Gods and I recently enjoyed reading the book "Heroes, Gods and Monsters of Greek Myths" by Bernard Evslin. The book came out in 1984, and was really well done. I can't believe it took this long for me to read about them.
 

MY FASCINATION -  perhaps it's because the men are handsome and muscular, or just that they are like superheroes of old. Of course, Greek gods have always been part of the Wonder Woman and Shazam canons, which is what made them even more interesting to me. 

WHAT THEY SAY - The stories explain how humans received some things like fire, song, and more. It's also interesting to see where Christianity borrowed from the Greek God mythology. All in all, a fascinating collection.
  
DID YOU KNOW? That a number of words in the English language come from Greek mythology? Over the next couple of blogs, we'll highlight some of them. 

Some Greek Gods. Credit; DC Comics

BOOK SUMMARY:  The heroes, gods, and monsters of Greek mythology come alive in this exciting collection of retellings of the ancient myths that includes tales of Zeus, Hera, Apollo, Artemis, and many more. Written in simple, direct language, Heroes, Gods and Monsters of the Greek Myths is an accessible and entertaining guide to the Greek myths and their players, following fearless heroes as they battle epic beasts under the eyes of the mighty immortals who rule them.
   From mortal warriors like Perseus and his impossible task of slaying the monstrous Medusa, to Zeus, the king of the Gods whose thunderbolts can shake the earth, to the minotaur, a gruesome beast, half-man and half-bull, who destroys young victims that are sacrificed to his terrifying power, this world is one of magic and adventure.

A LIST OF GODS (Source: Wikipedia):

Ancient Greek name	English name	Description
Ἀχλύς (Akhlýs)	Achlys	The goddess of poisons, and the personification of misery and sadness. Said to have existed before Chaos itself.
Αἰθήρ (Aithḗr)	Aether	The god of light and the upper atmosphere.
Αἰών (Aiôn)	Aion	The god of eternity, personifying cyclical and unbounded time. Sometimes equated with Chronos.
Ἀνάγκη (Anánkē)	Ananke	The goddess of inevitability, compulsion, and necessity.
Χάος (Cháos)	Chaos	The personification of nothingness from which all of existence sprang. Depicted as a void. Initially genderless, later on described as female.
Χρόνος (Chrónos)	Chronos	The god of empirical time, sometimes equated with Aion. Not to be confused with the TitanCronus (Kronos), the father of Zeus.
Ἔρεβος (Érebos)	Erebus	The god of darkness and shadow.
Ἔρως (Eros)	Eros	The god of love and attraction.
Γαῖα (Gaîa)	Gaia (Gaea)	Personification of the Earth (Mother Earth); mother of the Titans.
Ἡμέρα (Hēméra)	Hemera	The goddess of day.
Ὕπνος (Hypnos)	Hypnos	The personification of sleep.
Νέμεσις (Némesis)	Nemesis	The goddess of retribution.
Nῆσοι (Nē̂soi)	The Nesoi	The goddesses of the islands and sea.
Νύξ (Nýx)	Nyx	The goddess of night.
Οὔρεα (Oúrea)	The Ourea	The gods of mountains.
Φάνης (Phánēs)	Phanes	The god of procreation in the Orphic tradition.
Πόντος (Póntos)	Pontus	The god of the sea, father of the fish and other sea creatures.
Τάρταρος (Tártaros)	Tartarus	The god of the deepest, darkest part of the underworld, the Tartarean pit (which is also referred to as Tartarus itself).
Θάλασσα (Thálassa)	Thalassa	Personification of the sea and consort of Pontus.
Θάνατος (Thánatos)	Thanatos	God of Death. Brother to Hypnos (Sleep) and in some cases Moros (Doom)
Οὐρανός (Ouranós)	Uranus	The god of the heavens (Father Sky); father of the Titans.

2 Real Hero Stories in the News!

Superheroes don't just exist in comic books- they're everywhere in society today. From caretakers to Police and Firemen and women, folks in the military, teachers, animal shelter and rescue workers and so many more. Those people are all heroes to me. In today's news, there are stories of two other real-life heroes, that I thought you'd like to read. One story from Washington, DC, the other from Boston, Mass.
** There are a lot of people out there who need a hero - and even a smile or a hug can make you a hero. Here's What I Mean: I remember being in St. Edward's Catholic church in Nashville in 1996, sitting by myself, when an elderly woman came in alone and sat next to me. During the "sign of peace" I asked her if she would like a hug, and she said, "Yes, please." I gave her one. She thanked me several times, and I'll never forget her smile. So, a simple hug can make YOU a hero to someone who really needs to know that someone cares.
HERE ARE THE STORIES IN THE NEWS:
DAY AFTER SAVING WOMAN, TRANSIT HERO HELPS SAVE FIRE VICTIMS
Less than 24 hours after saving a woman who fell in front of a Washington subway train, a Houston, Texas, transit cop was at it again.
FULL STORY: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/22/metro.hero/index.html

A Fire Department dispatcher chased and captured a mugger at an Orange Line MBTA Subway station in Boston. http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/01/23/t_rider_tells_of_nabbing_suspect/