An 11-year-old girl from Fairfield was honored on Monday for saving her little brother’s life.

Charlotte Cifelli was given the American Red Cross’s highest award – the Certificate of Merit.

Charlotte and her brothers were eating dinner when her younger brother started choking. Their mother wasn’t in the room, so Charlotte leapt into action.

“I went and started giving him back blows and then I did one or two more and the hot dog came out,” she says. “And I did a few more for good measure.”

Charlotte says that she learned the technique from watching an American Red Cross online video a month before.