On August 8, 2025, Mayor Eric Adams appeared on PIX11’s Morning News to honor Stew Leonard Jr. for his heroic actions. During a recent PIX11 segment, Leonard Jr. saved the life of engineer Kurt Bennett, who choked on a piece of steak. Using skills from his Red Cross lifeguard training, Leonard Jr. performed the Heimlich maneuver, dislodging the food. The mayor praised Leonard Jr. for turning personal tragedy—losing his son to drowning—into a mission to teach swim safety to over 50,000 children and for his quick thinking in saving Bennett. Adams declared the day “Stew Leonard Jr. Day” in New York City, highlighting the importance of life-saving skills like the Heimlich and CPR.
Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live on PIX11’S “PIX11 Morning News at 7AM”
Dan Mannarino: And just last week, supermarket icon Stew Leonard Jr. joined us right here at the Pixar Studios on New York Living to talk about a topic that he’s really passionate about, it was swim safety.
[Video plays.]
Stew Leonard Jr.: After Stewie died, I figured, I wonder if we could help other people. So I bought every single book on Amazon that had to do with swimming. But a lot of them were just fun, like otters swimming in the water. It was nothing instructional, so we decided to write a book.
Hazel Sanchez: Talking about saving lives, but what our viewers did not see happened off camera when one of our very own PIX 11 engineer, Kurt Bennett, began choking. And Stew jumped right into action, performing the Heimlich Maneuver and potentially saving Kurt’s life.
Mannarino: That act of heroism quickly got around and it caught the attention of the mayor himself, Eric Adams, who wanted to personally recognize Stew’s quick thinking and bravery. And we are joined this morning by Mayor Adams, Stew Leonard Jr. and the many saved, our very own Kurt Bennett. Good morning to all three of you.
Okay, so let’s talk about it. We were doing a segment in the 9 o’clock hour, it was all about steak. And Kurt, walk us through what happened after that.
Kurt Bennett: So I had just gone back from break and I made the mistake of just grabbing a plastic fork and thinking, you know what, I can just take a bite out of this and chew on it. Here’s something on headset that made me go, huh? Took a breath, steak went right down my throat.
So I just went, uh oh, you’re in trouble. We’re on the air. You don’t want to get the Heimlich on the air. You don’t want to make it on TV for choking on a steak. Well, here I am on TV for choking on a steak. It was like game one of the conference finals, Knicks Pacers, don’t want to choke away that lead.
Sanchez: Oh my gosh.
Bennett: Went into the corner and saw Stew. I’m just like, okay, let me communicate without being able to talk. First thing they thought, we’re being loud. I went, mm-mm.
Sanchez: Being loud, you thought, okay.
Bennett: Yep. Went like this. Stew jumped right into action. Turned me around, picked me up, got out right away.
Sanchez: Oh my gosh. Stew, when did you realize that Kurt was in trouble?
Leonard Jr.: Well, he was turning colors and he also had, he couldn’t talk and you were, but you know what I want to thank is the Red Cross and I just went through lifeguard training because we have those swim schools to teach, you know, kids how to swim and it gave me the confidence to really take the lead, you know, and go in and give him the Heimlich maneuver, which was good.
Mannarino: Yeah. And that steak flew out of his mouth.
Leonard Jr.: You know what? It was like a Frisbee. I mean, we’ve got to teach him. You’ve got to, you’ve got to cut your steak a little bit more.
Mannarino: I know. When we see food around here, we get excited. Mayor, you heard about this and you wanted to recognize Stew for his efforts and his life-saving skills here.
Mayor Eric Adams: Because there were layers to the story, you know, Stew’s unfortunate loss of a child from swimming, from drowning. And so that painful moment, he turned into purpose. He started his swim instruction, 50,000 children, and little did he know that one day the maneuvers that were needed, he was going to save someone else’s life.
So it’s just really a story about turning pain into purpose. He’s saving lives, not only about teaching children how to swim, but look, literally the skills that he needed, saved the life of this young man, Kurt, as well.
Leonard Jr.: You know, we appreciate the mayor’s just overall support with helping these children out. Because it’s a 501c3 and we give all free lessons. Like Asphalt Green, for instance, down here in the city, which we support. So we’re really just trying to help kids out and taking that lifeguard training was really the key to it. And I got to thank the Red Cross.
Mannarino: Yeah, Stew, you know it’s serious when the mayor brings in one of these sized tablets here.
Leonard Jr.: I hope you’re not going to read that whole thing.
Sanchez: What do you have there, Mr. Mayor?
Mayor Adams: This is a proclamation for him, pointing out what he has done, not only what he has done for Kurt, but what he has done for young people all over the cities. And we’re just going to, today, as the mayor, I’m announcing that this is Stew Leonard Jr. Day in New York City.
Leonard Jr.: Wow.
Mannarino: Congratulations, Stew.
Sanchez: You know, I’m sure there are a lot of folks at home right now, too, thinking, you know, Stew, you saved someone’s life. You learned how to do the Heimlich maneuver. But there are a lot of folks at home that don’t even think it’s that important, but it really is.
Mayor Adams: No, it really is. And when you think about it, it’s trained, police officers are trained. We saw at the last graduation, a police officer who saved a child. He was drowning and the police officer was off duty.
He pulled him out and for six minutes, he performed CPR. So these are real basic skills that we should know. You can be sitting around the kitchen table, in a pool, it doesn’t matter. Really people should take the course that the Red Cross is giving.
Bennett: Because anyone can be a hero. I’m just grateful for Stew because he’s my hero, the guardian angel around the corner.
Mannarino: There you go. There you go.
Leonard Jr.: My new buddy.
Mannarino: What a moment. What a moment. Thank you all three for coming in here.
Mayor Adams: He’s going to go plant based now.
Bennett: I thought you were bringing me oatmeal for breakfast. Where’s my oatmeal?
Mannarino: You’ve got to teach him the smoothie skills. You’ve got to teach him the smoothie skills. Right? You’re better in liquid form, Kurt.
Leonard Jr.: I’m really honored and I appreciate the recognition. But, you know, it’s almost surreal. I don’t even, you know, it was just, you just jumped into action.
Sanchez: Well, thankfully you were here. We have him here now.
Mannarino: No CPR.
Leonard Jr.: I’m going to give him tips on cutting steak.
Mannarino: We’ll have all the information on our website, too, on how you can sign up to learn both the Heimlich and CPR, important life-saving skills. Thank you all three for being here. Kurt, sorry, you’ve got to go back to work now.
August 8, 2025
Sources: NYC.gov , Big New York news BigNY.com
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