Heroes honored at breakfast
Published: March 16, 2005
The American Red Cross of Knox County honored 10 local heroes at its annual Heroes Breakfast on Tuesday at The Dan Emmett Conference Center.
Candidates for the honor are nominated for a single act or ongoing single act of heroism performed in the past year.
This year’s Youth Hero of the Year was presented by Douglas Brenneman of Brenneman Lumber Co. to 12-year-old Jordan Montgomery for instinctively grabbing his younger sister from her bed before running out of their house that was on fire last year.
“With no shirt and no shoes, he took Maddie out through the ice and snow to the car. Then he came back to the porch and got his other sister. While we drove away from the house he put his arms around his sisters and held them to keep them calm,” said his mother. “I didn’t think about how brave he was to act on his own until later.”
Fredericktown police officer Lt. Jay Sheffer was recognized as Public Safety Hero of the Year for saving the life of an accident victim. Responding to an accident call, Sheffer arrived on the scene to find the victim not breathing. He used a portable automated external defibrillator to bring the victim back to life.
“He saved the man before the squad arrived,” said Jerry Day, police chief of Fredericktown. The award was presented to him by Ian Watson of First-Knox National Bank.
Senior Adult Hero Charles Waddell was honored by Brad Walls of Ariel Corp. for his creative acts of kindness to other seniors. Nominated by the staff of The Inn at HillenVale, Waddell sets up his shoe shine stand there once a month, shining shoes and carrying on conversations with the residents. During an old-fashioned days event last year, Waddell set up his stand and shined shoes the entire day.
Joe Sellers, Red Cross board member and Kokosing Construction Co.’s safety officer, presented the Workplace Hero award to two Kokosing Construction employees, Brad Rice and Mark Moore. Rice gave CPR and resuscitation to a co-worker after they were both shocked while moving a wire rope. Rice has been trained in Red Cross CPR as part of his supervisor training at Kokosing.
Moore was making deliveries in the Mansfield area one day when he witnessed a minivan roll down an embankment and burst into flames. Acting quickly, Moore grabbed the fire extinguisher from his truck and helped put out the fire. He used his pocket knife to cut the seat belt and free the passenger in the van.
“Of three of us stopping to help, I was the only one carrying a knife,” Moore said.
The Education Hero of the Year was presented by LeBron Fairbanks, president of Mount Vernon Nazarene University, to Holly Tetlow for her unselfish commitment to tutoring a homebound critically ill student. The student, Joseph Kasper, and his mother, Teresa, nominated Tetlow, saying that it was mental therapy as well as scholastically helpful for Tetlow to tutor Joseph while he underwent treatment for leukemia.
“She would come to the house three times a week to work with him. Her car was a school on wheels. She really went above and beyond to help him keep in touch with his classmates and school work,” said Teresa.
Lynn Jurkowitz was named the 2005 Community Hero Award, presented by Larry Speece of Weyerhaeuser Corp. Jurkowitz plays piano, sings and entertains at senior centers in the area. She was nominated by Sue Waddell of Country Club Retirement Campus, who said, “She does so many special things for our community and she is always just a phone call away.”
Drs. Tracy Sherman and Dr. Barry George were presented with the Health Care Heroes of the Year after they teamed up to provide extraordinary care to a patient to diagnose and treat his heart ailment following a routine stress test. In a testimonial from the patient, Sherman paid a house call to the patient at 11 p.m. after he had failed to return his call that day. Upon discussion and review of test results, Sherman referred the man to his medical school classmate, George. The next day George called the patient from where he was vacationing in Florida and promised to treat him as soon as possible upon returning to the Ohio.
“They found a 99.9 percent blockage in an artery that supplies 80 percent of the blood to the heart,” the patient said. Because of the physicians’ actions, the patient was able to go on a planned Boy Scout hike in Arizona with his son.
Hero of all heroes, Helen Zelkowitz was honored by the American Red Cross Board of Directors as the “Above and Beyond” hero of the year for her overwhelming, unselfish and long-term service to the Knox County community.
“In 1933 at the age of 22, Helen moved to Mount Vernon with her husband, Charles,” said Dave Gore, executive director of the Knox County Red Cross. Both became active in community organizations, including the local Red Cross and started the radio stations, WKIO and WMVO.
“During the floods of 1959, she camped out at the radio station for three days, providing a valuable service of communication to the residents of Knox County,” said Gore. Zelkowitz was the first woman chairman of the United Way in Knox County and, according to Gore, has served on every agency board in the community.
“She is truly a cornerstone and member of our community,” he said. Upon receiving her award, Zelkowitz said, “When you start believing your own publicity, it’s the wrong road to take. I thank you for this award.”
Winners of the Youth Art Contest and their artwork were also recognized at the breakfast. In grades kindergarten through third, first place went to Erica Browning, third grade; second place to Kyle Lambert, second grade; and third place went to Maria Kirchner, third grade.
In grades four through six, first place went to Courtney Anne Browning, fifth grade; second place to Jessica Pitzer, fifth grade; and third place to Courtney Sparks, fifth grade.
First place for grades 10 through 12 was Ashley Marich.
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