The Green Bay Packers have recognized two central Wisconsin law-enforcement officers — and a K-9 partner — for rescue work that local reporting says helped save lives in two separate emergencies.

According to Point/Plover Metro Wire reporting by Brandi Makuski, Portage County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Brad Mathwich and Stevens Point Police Officer JD Ballew, along with Ballew’s K-9 partner Barry, received the 2026 Packers Protect & Serve Award.

The award recognizes Wisconsin law-enforcement officers who go above and beyond the call of duty and includes a $2,000 grant for the recipient’s department or a nonprofit organization, the report said.

K-9 Barry’s search work

For Ballew and Barry, the recognition traces back to the September 2025 search for six-year-old Ruby Lehmann near Almond, Wisconsin. The Metro Wire reported that Ruby had been missing for two days when officers searched a heavily wooded area.

More than 20 tactical officers formed a line through thick brush, according to the report. Barry began working scent at the edge of the line, changed direction, circled a pine tree, and pushed into a brush pile. When the dog lifted branches with his nose, Ballew saw a small leg, the outlet reported.

“Without Barry, 100 percent we would have walked right by,” Ballew told the Metro Wire after the rescue.

Deputy Mathwich’s Lake DuBay rescue

Mathwich was recognized for a December 2025 rescue on Lake DuBay. The report said an elderly woman and her adult son went onto the ice after their dogs fell through, and both people eventually broke through thin ice into frigid water.

Mathwich arrived within minutes, grabbed a rope from his squad car, crawled onto the ice, and first used the rope to pull the man toward safety, according to the report. When the woman became too weak to hold on, Mathwich entered the icy water and physically pulled her to safety.

Portage County Sheriff Mike Lukas said both victims faced an imminent risk of hypothermia and drowning, according to the Metro Wire. “Had the deputy not been there, this would be a different ending,” Lukas said while presenting Mathwich with a lifesaving award earlier this month. “That water was just way too deep.”

Both people survived without serious injury, the report said.

The story stands out because it shows two very different kinds of law-enforcement rescue work: a K-9 team finding a missing child in dense woods, and a deputy making a fast decision on dangerous ice before specialized rescue equipment arrived.

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ThinBlueNews will update this story if additional official information becomes available.