On August 12, 2009 the Ohio River Valley American Red Cross held its Eleventh Annual Heroes Breakfast in order to honor those individuals who demonstrated outstanding service to their community. Direct affiliation with the American Red Cross was not necessary or required in order to receive any award. 

 Fire Heroes

Shanda Steele and Shelley Howell

This year's Fire Heroes are Shelley Howell and Shanda Steele, employees of Scioto Residential Services in Portsmouth.

"I never dreamed anything like this would happen to me for doing something that I would do for anybody," Howell said of her Hero honor.

On April 1, Steele was driving a van with three elderly clients, including one in a wheelchair, and two who rely on walkers, when the problems began.  She stopped the van in the company parking lot and saw smoke begin to roll out from the engine area. Together, Steele and Howell helped get the people out of the vehicle, only moments before it went up in flames.  Steele then moved the vehicle away from the building, while it continued burning.

"We don't consider ourselves heroes.  We were just doing our job," Steele said.

"I would hope there would be more people out there like us that would take that extra step to ensure the safety and well-being of their clients."

Volunteer Hero

Haley Scott

This year's Volunteer Hero is 16-year old Haley Scott - a student at Minford being honored for her community volunteer service.  Scott has volunteered for the local Obama campaign, school donations for Nigeria, Big Brother and Big Sisters, and for Southern Ohio Medical Center Hospice.  Her spirit for helping others began in the third grade, when her baseball team voluntereed at the Handicapped Olympics.

"You're never too young to make a difference," Scott said.  She said she still didn't understand why she was being honored for doing what she considers normal, and what everyone should be doing.  I think I can make a difference and help make the world  better.  I feel like everyone should do their very best to make at least one small difference everyday.  You owe it to everyone."

Scioto County Hero 

Theora Bradley

This year's Scioto County Hero is Theora Bradley of New Boston, a volunteer at SOMC Hospice and member of the hospital's 11th Hour Committee - called out to sit with someone before they pass away, so they aren't alone in their final moments.

"You feel sorry for the families or for the person who's leaving, but at the same time you're helping to ease them on.  I think most of the benefits you get, most of the time, is helping the family adjust, rather than the patient," Bradley said.

In her life, Bradley has always been involved with volunteering with Girl Scouts and local schools.  She said it is her work with Hospice, though, that touches her most.  Not all her work comes in the patient's final moments.  Most of what she does involves just being there to help patients in their daily routine - taking them to a doctor or running errands for them.

"It means a lot to me to go into a home and become a friend to someone, and listen to them and help them," Bradley said.

She said she was humbled to have this honor as Red Cross Hero, but she said there are so many more in the Hospice organization that also deserve the attention .

Youth Hero

Mark Frazie

This year's Youth Hero is Mark Frazie, who has hosted the Hooks for Books boxing event in area high schools since 2004.

"I was in Chicago speaking at a college and they kept talking about, on the news, school gang fights.  I thought, 'Man, put  them in the ring.  If they got gloves on, they can't shoot or stab anybody.  Let them fight it out,'"Frazie said. "I came down and talked to the principals and superintendents and (athletic directors) and said, 'What if I put high school against high school in boxing for girls and guys; freshman against freshman, sophmore against sophmore, and I give money back to the schools?' They said, 'Let's try it.'"

Frazie said it gets bigger every year, as interest grows all over the country.  He said most of the kids who participate are not the typically athletic students who participate in football or basketball.

"In the last five years, we've given back $50,000 in scholarship money to schools and organizations.  I've never seen so much heart in my life as I've seen in these kids.  They just won't quit."

He said being named a Hero by the Red Cross has nothing to do with him, but everything to do with the kids he works with.

Organ Donor Heroes 

 

JoAnna Krohn, Laura Flannery, Tara McCourt Newton and Pati Dyer (Kim Hardesty not pictured)

This year's Organ Donor Heroes are the Scioto County volunteers of Lifeline of Ohio: JoAnna Krohn, Laura Flannery, Tara McCourt Newton, Pati Dyer and Kim Hardesty. 

Krohn said a person dies every other day in Ohio waiting for a lifesaving transplant.  Her 18-year old son, Wesley Workman, died in 2008 and donated his organs to  five different people

"We can save people if we just say yes to organ donation," she said.

Like Krohn, all of the ladies of Lifeline have personal stories to share.  The organization is more than just an advocate for organ donation, it's a support group for those who know the loss that often comes with donation, or the fear of waiting on a transplant list.

"It has helped me move on with everything.  These girls are like family.  Whenever I call them at midnight and want to talk to them and cry, and they say, 'I know what you're going through,' I know they really know what I'm going through, and they can actually relate to me; instead of random people going, 'I know what you're going through,' and I'm like, 'No you don't,'" Flannery, of Wheelersburg, said.  "Those girls have become my lifeline."

Dyer not only received the gift of organ donation, when her infant granddaughter was given a life-saving transplant last year, she also has given the gift, donating her own kidney this year.

"I think  we're extremely blessed to have the opportunity (to donate).  A lot of people might look at organ donation and transplantation as unfortunate, when someone passes away, but people don't understand we're able to restore life to a family that lost all that hope.  It's something far more important than when we just lose somebody.  We give life to a family, not just to an individual," Dyer said.

They said the real heroes are the people who have already donated, or who have registered themselves as an organ donor with the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

Fundraising Hero

Barbara & David Lodwick

This year's Fundraising Heroes are Barbara and David Lodwick, who opened their home this year to the Red Cross to host an event honoring Clara Barton Society members - those donors who give $1000 or more to the Red Cross.

"We've opened it up for a lot of different organizations in town.  When the Red Cross asked me, I couldn't say no because I really beleive in that organization.  This was the first time we opened our home to the Red Cross," Barbara Lodwick said.

She said her home could comfortably entertain 300 people, with a wonderful view of Portsmouth.

"We have been given  a lot of eathly things, and David and I believe you can only enjoy it if you share it.  If you do not share what you have, it never comes back to you."

Lodwick said she and her husband are honored to receive this recognition by the Red Cross, but she said there are a lot of equally deserving people in our community.

Pike County Hero

Euggle Robertson

This year's Pike County Hero is Euggle Robertson, who led the annual Red Cross campaign in Pike County for Fiscal year 2009, raising more than $4000.

"Helping Red Cross with their fundraising campaign this year was really an honor for me.  I think it's really important for us to move than just be a spectator.  If we each do our part, then our community, our towns, our state , our country and our world would be a better place."

She said the Red Cross has touched her family, also by offering her son a place to stay and basic necessities, after his home was destroyed by fire.

Robertson is  retired from Bristol Village, in Waverly, and also from Waverly City Schools.  She said she was humbled by the Red Cross.

"There are so many good causes, but I have to put the Red Cross at the top," Robertson said.

Preparedness Hero

Jerry Cornwell and the Valley Volunteer Fire Department 

This year's Preparedness Hero is Chief Jerry Cornwell and the entire Valley Volunteer Fire Department, who assisted the Red Cross in opening a shelter at the Valley Middle School for the citizens of northern Scioto County during the ice storm in January 2009.  The department also donated four radios, and made special trips to the Red Cross Chapter in Cincinnait to pick up more cots and supplies for our local Red Cross.

"I think they had somewhere around 10 to 15 people, off and on, during that whole time, that were staying at the shelter.  We also got a call from the Homeless Shelter here in town to assist them with the homeless shelter here and we were in the process of trying to find vehicles to bring them out so we could house them."

He also said the shelter stayed open for about a week, serving people without heat or power, including some of the Valley Township Volunteer Fire Department.

"Most of my mission was to go around the rest of the township checking with the men and women we had cutting out trees to try to get to people who were without power, to get them medical supplies if they needed it."

He said it takes a special person to be able to volunteer, and he praised the efforts of his entire department who volunteer their time every day.

"Even though they were without power, they were out helping their neighbor, which speaks volumes of those men and women.  I'm just very fortunate to have that quality of people."

Community Hero

Gene Arms

This year's Community Hero is Gene Arms, who is being honored for his dedication to the Portsmouth area through such organizations as the Civic Forum and the Boy Scouts

Though you may not know his name, you probably enjoy his work every July 4th.  It's the Civic Forum that puts on the annual July 4th fireworks in Portsmouth.  The Civic Forum also brought the popular Soap Box Derby back to Portsmouth this year.

"It's been 27 years since we had (a derby).  The first time I got involved in the Soap Box Derby was in 1945, and I wasn't even old enough to be a Civic Forum member at the time.  I was 15 at the time and I used to take the ambulance up Kendall Avenue in case someone got hurt.  Then when I got to be 21 I joined the Forum and I've been with it ever since."

Arms also has been involved in the Scioto County Spelling Bee, and is actively involved with Cornerstone United Methodist Church.

"I think it's highly important to have these activities for kids.  For one thing it helps keep them off the street and steers them in the right direction of citizenship.  It's still fun and we see a lot of the kids having a lot of good, clean fun out of it."

Arms said he was shocked to  find out he was chosen by the Red Cross as a Community Hero.  Like most of the Heroes this year, Arms doesn't think of himself as a hero.

"I think if you get anything out of the community, you should give something back to it," Arms said.

Senior Hero

Joan Bogan

This year's Senior Hero is Joan Bogan, a senior volunteer for Retired Senior Volunteer Program with many of her hours going to the Red Cross.

"I've done a lot of paperwork for R.S.V.P., and I really enjoy working with the Red Cross.  We do blood drives and the Disaster Blaster.  I'm on the disaster team; in case we have a disaster, I go in for 12 hours.  I can go to fires, and assess the fire and see what's happening and what we can provide for the men, women and children," Bogan said.

She said volunteering is more important now than ever before, given the state of our economy and the increasing number of people in need of assistance.

"If we can put a smile on anybody's face, that's what we need to do," she said.

Bogan recently moved back to Scioto County to be closer to her family, and since her arrival she has donated more than 500 hours of service to nine different organizations in our community.  She was  "flabbergasted" to hear that she was chosen as a Red Cross Hero, because to her a hero is someone who puts their own life in danger for another person.

Blood Hero

Rita Auton

This year's Blood Hero is Rita Auton, an assistant lab manager at Pike Community Hospital who also helps with local blood drives and helps conduct a blood drive for her church.  Since December 2006, Auton has helped collect 576 productive units of blood - enough to save more than 1728 lives.

"It is incredibly important (to donate blood).  We've seen some incredibly sad traumas, and I've seen over and over and over again the capacity that those units have to save lives.  That's what really drives me to want to help.  It's  such a real part of saving lives."

She encourages people to donate blood and said collectors always do whatever they can to make donors comfortable.

"I know there is a lot of fear involved in the donation process, and a lot of people just don't like needles, and that's understandable.  But when you think about what that substance can do for another human being, it far outweighs the fear-factor," Auton said.

CPR / First Aid Heroes

Joe Wood                                            April Barnette

This year's CPR Heroes are Joe Wood, an EMT, and April Barnette, an athletic trainer at Shawnee State University.  Together, they spent about 20 minutes administering CPR to a  man after he collapsed at SSU in November.  The man did not survive, but the Red Cross still honors the administration and the efforts of Wood and Barnette.

"It was kind of a surprise (to be honored) because I do this on a daily basis.  But I'm honored and I appreciate it," Wood said.

Wood is also a former CPR instructor for the Red Cross.  He promoted the accessibility of automated extenal defibrillators (AEDs) in schools, offices or anywhere there are people.

"In CPR, early defibrillation is a big factor in survivability," Wood said.

Military Hero

Sam McKibben

This year's Military Hero is Sam McKibben, who is honored for his many years of service to our country through the U.S. Military. 

McKibben began his military career with five of his friends in the Air Force, right after graduating high school.  They were sent to Lackland Air Force Base in Texas for basic training, then to tech school where McKibben learned to be a fuel specialist.  He used that training to refuel jet aircraft in the Strategic Air Command for four years in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  It was there he also began his radio career, for which he is well-known in our community.

He remained in the reserves while working in local radio, and 20 years after leaving the Air Force, he was called by the U.S. Navy to comeback to the military with the Navy Recruiting Command.  He retired as  a chief petty officer in 1998 after 22 years with the Navy.

A year later, he was called again - this time by the Ohio Military Reserve (an adjunct of the Ohio National Guard).

"Most of the things we do in homeland security are behind the scenes.  We don't want a lot of publicity.  I came in as a sergeant first class ... and two years later, they asked me to take a commission, and I did.  Since then I've been promoted three times and now I am a lieutenant colonel," McKibben said.

While  working with the service, McKibben has also played a part in promoting military events and causes in our community.

"It absolutely is the greatest experience of my life.  I wouldn't trade it for anything.  Given the chance to do it all over again, I absolutely would.  It teaches you how to be a man - or in the case of a female, a woman - and it teaches you self-reliance.  Another thing I love about it is the chance to travel all over the world.  I've seen countries and been in cities all over the country and in Europe that I wouldn't have seen otherwise probably, and all on Uncle Sam's dime." McKibben said

He said he was humbled by the recognition and congratulates all this year's Heroes.

Pet Hero 

Swann the Hospice Dog

This year's Pet Hero is Swann the SOMC Hospice Dog.

Swann is a 3-year old German shepherd mix, named after Pittsburgh Steeler Lynn Swann.  Swann was once rejected as an assist dog because she craved attention so much.  Now she lives at the Hospice Center where she provides company and affection to Hospice patients and their families.

"She'll go to the door and she'll look in and she'll enter only if the families tell her to come in," Teresa Ruby, of Hospice, said.  "She just comes by every day to check and make sure they're doing OK."

Ruby said having an animal at the facility provides warmth and comfort to patients.  Swann can do even more than that.

"She can take clothes out of the dryer.  She can take socks off your feet.  There's numerous things that when we got her she had been trained to do.  She's a very loving, very kind dog."

Agency Support Heroes

This year's Agency Support Heroes are the many volunteers who helped the Ohio River Valley Chapter of the Ameican Red Cross move into their new building on Robinson Avenue.

Those Heroes are Jeff Smith, Scott Luther, Kent Bowling, Chris Steward, Kenny Freeman, Jack Dunlap, Jeff Love, Pittsburgh Paints, Bob Cooper, Allen Franz, Jo Ann Oswald, John Rice, Phyllis Rice, Mike Mearan, Leo Vance, Alice Vance, Ryan Brown, Tom Frazier. RoseMary Poston, R. L. Mohl, Roscoe Tyler, Boy Scout Troop 12, Mark Schaffer, Ben Davis, Andy Bazler, Tony Bazler, Linda Davis, Chris Kelley, Eli Kelley, Nancy Hawk, Joni Lewis, Jim Wayne, and staff of the Ohio River Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross.

"These are a great bunch of people in our community who got together and donated all of their services," Chapter Executive Mary Arnzen said, on behalf of the Agency Support Heroes.  She said the new office gives the chapter better visibility and allows them to better serve the community.

The Marcia Sanderlin Award

Mary Arnzen

It's hard to  keep a secret and even harder to keep a secret from your boss.  That's exactly what the staff at the Ohio River Valley Red Cross did when they decided to give the agency's honor, the "Marcia Sanderlin Award" to their boss, Red Cross Executive Director Mary Arnzen.

"Marcia Sanderlin was a very committed Red Cross board member when she lived in Portsmouth and she has continued to support our chapter from her home in North Carloina.  She worked hard not only in her professional life at Savory Foods, but also shared her swimming talents with young people for 20 years, and she gave generously to numerous community non-profits," said Sonie Hash, chair of the local Red Cross Board of Directors.  "Mary's employees and volunteers nominated her for the award because Mary shares the same qualities that we have always admired in Marcia, hard work, determination and a can-do attitude."

Terry Duncan, Emergency Services Director with the Red Cross has worked with Arnzen for a number of years.  He said they wanted Arnzen to receive the award because of her hard work and tireless fundraising.

"I have never seen anyone who works as hard or is as dedicated to the Red Cross as she is," said Duncan.  "She is one of  the most deserving recipients I have seen in my tenure here.  Mary never goes anywhere that she is not talking about the Red Cross and our needs for funding, and is always willing to help when a disaster occurs."

Red Cross volunteers, board members and staff members meet prior to the annual Heroes breakfast to read through the hero's nominations they receive.  At one of those meetings when Arnzen walked out of the room Duncan told those in attendance what he wanted to do.  Everyone agreed to keep the secret and when Arnzen asked for nominations for the Sanderlin award, no one said a word and Arnzen thought they just weren't going to present the award this year.  She was vey surprised when Dr. Wayne Wheeler, the emcee at the breakfast, presented her with the award at the end of the Eleventh Annual Heroes Breakfast on August 12 at the SOMC Friends Center.

"I am very honored to be put in the same category as Marcia Sanderlin.  She was and still is a great friend to the Ohio River Valley Red Cross," Arnzen said.  "She gave countless hours to the chapter as well as financial support and we still keep in touch with her to let her know how much we appreciate her efforts."

~ We Thank You One and All ~