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Destiny Mercado (left) with a team of oxen in Puerto Rico during the Spring Break trip there earlier this month.

Mud-splattered students Kenneth A. Thigpen, second from left, with then-girlfriend and future wife Ann Marie Cianci, far left, posed with their classmates Esta Coverman and Ernie Brock near Piazza Santa Croce in front of the Biblioteca Nazionale in Florence in 1966.

Prime Minister of Italy, Matteo Renzi, spoke to and thanked the Mud Angels directly at a special ceremony at City Hall in Florence in November.

Kenneth A. Thigpen in front of a remembrance poster that was one of many hung around Florence for the 50th anniversary of the flood.

Ann Marie Cianci and Kenneth A. Thigpen in Vatican Square after being bused out of Florence in 1966.

Ponte Vecchio, a Medieval stone arch bridge over the Arno River in Florence, after the 1966 flood.

Kenneth A. Thigpen stood with then-girlfriend and future wife Ann Marie Cianci in the Via Cavour in Florence soon after the dam broke on the Arno River in 1966.