Gov.Gen. Michaëlle Jean gave 47 people bravery decorations Thursday,including an Ontario girl who pulled her mother from a frozen lake and three Regina men who pulled a woman from a burning car seconds before it exploded.

The decorations recognize selfless acts that saved lives and sometimes cost rescuers their own. One U.S. Coast Guard officer received the Star of Courage, while 46 others were given the prestigious Medal of Bravery.

While some of the awards were given posthumously, recipients in attendance at a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa included soldiers,police officers, volunteer firefighters, electricians, elevator repairmen and even children.

Kelsey Roy of Carleton Place in eastern Ontario was just eight when she saved her mother's life.

She and her mother, Karin Roy, were enjoying a winter outing along Mississippi Lake in March 2007 when her mother fell through the ice and into the frigid waters. She yelled at her daughter to leave the scene,fearing she would also fall in. Kelsey instead crawled along the thin ice, grabbed her mother and pulled her to safety.

She also confessed some of her friends are kind of jealous of all the attention she is receiving for her act of bravery.

Harry Prymak said he could do without the attention. A press operator at the Winnipeg Free Press for 31 years, Prymak is used to printing the headlines, not making them.

Three years ago, Prymak and some friends were ice fishing on Lac duBonnet, Man., when they heard screams on the lake. An inexperienced snowmobiler had fallen through the ice.

Prymak said he got down on his belly and slid over to the hole where the snowmobiler had gone in.

"[I)] grabbed him by the arm and proceeded to pull him up on the ice, but the ice broke away and I also fell in," he said.

Prymak is not a strong swimmer, but went after the drowning man until Prymak's friends pulled them both out.

"It all happened too fast, I don't think anything went through my head, I should have sat back and thought about it a little better, butI thought it was urgent to try and get him out, " Prymak said.