He has chatted it up with Jimmy Fallon on Late Night and told his story to Lester Holt on the NBC Nightly News, but this week international hero Anthony Sadler stood quietly with his parents at Rancho Cordova City Hall to be honored by his Rancho Cordova neighbors.

Sadler and his parents Maria and Anthony, 15-year residents of the Cordova Meadows neighborhood, were all awarded keys to the city Monday in honor of Sadler’s now famous actions with two friends to thwart a terrorist attack on a moving train in France earlier this year.

Sadler and his parents led the Pledge of Allegiance, which customarily opens each Rancho Cordova City Council meeting.

Monday’s event was decidedly low-key, compared with sitting courtside at a Los Angeles Lakers game, which Sadler did the previous evening, or swirling around in the finals of Dancing with the Stars, as one of his cohorts did later that night.

But for the Rancho Cordova residents present it was a chance to get up-close to someone who has displayed, and what has been viewed worldwide as, rare and inspirational heroic actions.

Mayor Robert McGarvey presented a proclamation honoring “service to the community and the world” and ceremonial keys to the city to the entire family, because, “Your parents are heroes, too.”

Then, without adding any remarks, the family made a dignified retreat while those in Council Chambers gave him a standing ovation.

Sadler, a student at Sacramento State University, was at the center of a now familiar story of everyday heroism, where he and two friends—U.S. Airman Spencer Stone and Oregon National Guardsman Aleksander Skarlatos— jumped into action to subdue a terrorist on an Amsterdam-to-Paris train, preventing injury and loss of life on Aug. 22nd.

The act of valor landed all three in the international limelight as examples of how everyday people can find themselves in a position to prevent a terrorist attack.

The juncture of courage and celebrity was not lost on Councilmember David Sander, who in congratulatory remarks noted that Sadler had received rare and valuable insight.

“You have been given a remarkable gift,” he said, noting how most people wonder what they would do if ever faced with a life or death situation. “You found out what you have inside you,” he said.

He urged Sadler to use his unforeseen celebrity to share the values of selflessness and courage demonstrated by the trio of friends that fateful day in August.