Voting is now closed! You may still share the heroes’ pages, but votes will not count. We will be announcing the winner soon! Keep an eye out for our July Finalists later this week!
How to vote for Captain Don: Simply “share” this page on Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin. You can share once per social network. We’ll keep track, and the finalist with the most shares will win! Use the “Sharing is Caring” buttons at the bottom of this post to make sure they count!
Captain Don is a 20-year fire veteran and currently serves as a Fire Captain and Paramedic. During a service trip abroad in 2004, Captain Don was frustrated by the lack of equipment & training available to firefighters abroad. So he started working on a new calling: Global Mission Readiness. Using their own time off, money, and equipment, Don and his team of 60 volunteers has traveled to 12 countries to complete 21 missions. Each year, this team of firefighters, EMS personnel, Nurses and … teach tens of thousands of people the art of being a firefighter. The nonprofit operates solely on donations and also teaches first aid, specialty rescue and preparedness- with a strong emphasis on self-reliance.
Please note – we’ve changed the voting requirements this month. In order to vote, you’ll have to create an account and log in to vote. Once you register, you’ll be taken directly to the voting page.
Don’t want to register? You can still see the voting results – just click here.
Fran C. | Pennsylvania Firefighter & Nurse
On July 4, 2012, Fran entered a smoke-filled home and heard a woman in distress on the 2nd floor. When Fran found her, she was trapped, panicked and out of breathe from breathing in too much smoke. In a split-second decision, Fran took a big breath, removed his tank and put it on the woman. Both got out safely, although Fran was hospitalized for smoke inhalation. Fran later met the woman he saved, and presented her with about $500 of his own overtime pay to help her and her family. Fran became a firefighter after following in the footsteps of his retired Fire Captain father.
When Fran isn’t fighting fires, he works as a part time Nurse at Cancer Treatment Centers of America. Before becoming a full time firefighter, he worked as a Paramedic.
Nancy J. | Wisconsin Educator
Nancy J. has been enthusiastically servings as the Arrowhead High School Choir Director for almost 30 years. Known for her passion and motivation, Nancy works to make each and every student a part of the team. She uses creativity in her teaching to keep her high school students engaged and enthusiastic about the fine arts. Her hard work shows. Every year, choir performances pack the house and lines to buy performance tickets stretch out the door. Nancy goes above and beyond to highlight her students’ achievements: decorating the halls for their performances, taking headshots so they feel like stars, and accompanying them to weekend contests. Due to Nancy’s unceasing hard work, her high school’s choir and theatre programs have a reputation for greatness.
Corporal Stan P | Georgia Police Officer
When Officer Phillips answered a call about an aggressive dog, he arrived at the scene to find a vicious attack in progress. The dog was biting the victim, a 5-year-old little girl named Lilly, on the face and neck. Officer Phillips rushed to her aid and was able to free her from the dog. The girl was immediately airlifted to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, including a missing ear. After saving the girl’s life, Officer Phillips continued to go visit her in the hospital, despite the hour drive each way, and even arranged for donations to pay for her reconstructive surgery. After she was released from the hospital, Officer Phillips helped work with churches and charities to raise money for her continued recovery. Stan has worked on a crime suppression units, SWAT, and road patrols (among others) and coworkers note his dedication and noteworthy impact on high crime areas- calling him a ‘go to’ guy in the field.
When shots rang out in the hospital where Robert works, his first thought was the victim’s safety. As others dropped to the floor, Robert ran to aid of the gunshot victim- a physician who worked at the hospital. After rushing to get his patient to a safe location to receive medical attention, Robert took cover and provided comfort to distraught nursing students. Robert’s coworkers say this kind of heroic action is not out of character for a man who cares deeply about his patients. Robert is an integral member of the Haiti Outreach Mission (HOM). HOM works to bring mobile clinics to distant mountain locations where Robert helps triage patients in need. Closer to home, Robert also speaks out on behalf of his patients, many of whom are victims of violence, by speaking at anti-violence rallies.
Please note – we’ve changed the voting requirements this month. In order to vote, you’ll have to create an account and log in to vote. Once you register, you’ll be taken directly to the voting page.
Don’t want to register? You can still see the voting results – just click here.
Name: Jeff B.
Profession: Volunteer Firefighter/EMT
In 2012, Jeff responded to a medical emergency. As the 34-year volunteer Firefighter and EMT loaded his patient into an ambulance, a nearby fire truck popped out of gear and started to roll. As the truck came towards them both, Jeff shoved his patient out of the way- saving her life as he took the entire brunt of the impact. The force of the hit pinned Jeff between the vehicles, breaking both femurs, two bones in one shin and his pelvis in two spots. After several surgeries and months of recovery, Jeff’s surgeon told him his injuries would prevent him from firefighting. He now continues to work full time as a director of sales.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgALcX84IpI
Name: Angela W.
Profession: EMT
Emergency Medical Technician Angela W. was diagnosed with an aggressive type of breast cancer on her birthday last year. Angela faced her diagnosis with bravery and determination, muscling through radiation and chemotherapy with resolve and an upbeat attitude. Angela even returned to work as an EMT while still undergoing treatment. Some days, she would head to work for 12 or 24-hour shifts straight from radiation therapy. Now a breast cancer survivor, Angela thanks her immediate family and her EMS family for their support and encouragement during her recovery.
Name: September S.
Profession: Registered Nurse
September is a registered nurse raising three children while her husband is deployed in Afghanistan. As her husband puts it, “If superwoman did exist on this planet, her alter ego is September.” Watch the video below to hear directly from him what makes this Nurse such a hero:
Name: Steve H.
Profession: Educator
Steve is a Special Ed Behavioral Disorders teacher working with students of all ages. His coworkers describe Steve’s effect on his students as ‘amazing.’ Fellow teachers point out that his students are prepared and confident after his classes. They note the ‘happy changes’ that Steve helps his students make- changes that stay with them long after they have left his classroom. Steve not only teaches his students, he strives to make them feel important and needed. Outside of the classroom, Steve and his wife train guide dogs for the blind. So far, they have trained ten dogs- all of whom graduated on to the next level of training!
Name: Michael D.
Profession: Law Enforcement
In September 2012, San Diego County Sheriff’s Deputies were attempting to arrest a suspect when the suspect began shooting a high-powered rifle from a 2nd story window- hitting and wounding two officers. Off-duty SWAT Officer DeWitt, a member of the department’s Gang Suppression Team, happened to be driving by the scene in his SWAT vehicle when he noticed the disturbance. He immediately donned his vest, armed himself, and offered his service. Upon learning that an injured officer was still in the line of fire, DeWitt assembled a team, gave assignments, and proceeded in to retrieve the officer. The team reached the wounded officer, but realizing they were moving too slow, Officer DeWitt slung his weapon over his back–foregoing his own safety– to give full physical assistance and lessen the team’s time in the line of fire. While the team used DeWitt’s first aid kit to attend to the officer’s injuries, DeWitt noticed a woman and two small children running from the apartment complex in panic. Realizing that they were running into the line of fire, DeWitt left his position of safety to run and pick up one child as the woman carried the other to safety. DeWitt then returned to the apartment complex to make sure the second wounded officer was being cared for. He was nominated by his fellow law enforcement officers who note his extreme bravery, leadership, and judgment skills.
In our day-to-day work with Firefighters, we kept hearing more and more about budget cuts. With increasingly smaller budgets, firefighters were putting all their limited resources towards life-saving gear and equipment, and–not surprisingly–their firehouses were not the top priority. So back in 2012, we teamed up with Sherwin Williams, Maytag, and FireRescue TV to put together a $15,000 Firehouse Makeover. It was just one small way for us to say ‘Thank You’ to firefighters and make their homes away from home a little more… ‘home-y.’
Well, after months of talking about our Firehouse Makeover, we finally picked a winner! Firefighter Tameka “Ron” Cody of the Thomson, Georgia FD was our first Firehouse Makeover winner. Members of our team–along with Fire Chief Rick Sewell, Thomson mayor Kenneth Usry, members of the City Council and just about every city employee in town–gathered to surprise Ron with the news of his win. From there, the real work got started. Just a few short weeks later, we headed back out to Thomson to reveal the results with the Thomson Community and the famous Maytag Repairman.
We had such a great time working with the Thomson Fire Department renovating their firehouse. We are so grateful to the community for helping us thank these firefighters.
Now it’s time for our SECOND Firehouse Makeover! Next time, it could be YOUR station! To enter to win the next Firehouse Makeover, click here. Our next drawing will be in October 2013. Good luck!
This Guest Blog post is by blogger Michael Morse. Rescue Captain Morse, the blogger behind Rescuing Providence, is the featured article in our Firefighter & EMT News Resource: Flashpoint. To sign up to receive Flashpoint in your inbox once a month, click here!
Spring Cleaning
Everything she owned was in that house-everything she had ever owned. Nearly eighty years is a lot of time to acquire things, magazines stacked from floor to ceiling, boxes stacked on boxes, filled with things she owned. Furniture covered every inch of the three-bedroom place, mostly old, but a few new pieces scattered here and there. Most people consider their space in square feet, Mildred counted hers in cubic feet, and every inch needed to be filled.
The overflow spilled out of the entry door into the vestibule, where more “things” were stacked. From there, a path of stuff led to the driveway, where two mini-vans sat, idle for years, crammed with more things. One of the vans had a three cubic foot space where a driver might be able sit, if she crammed herself in, but visibility would be impossible, except perhaps for straight ahead. I don’t thing there has been much forward sight here, every inch of the premises reeked of life already lived.
She held on to the doorframe, digging her fingers into the greasy wood, refusing to leave. “I can’t leave my babies,” she said, frantic, panic setting into her eyes, eyes that had seen a lot, and had let go of little. Cats prowled through the clutter, seemingly everywhere, then nowhere, and then everywhere again. The stench making our eyes water and stomachs churn, bile rising in our throats as we tried to pry Mildred away from everything she had. Had ever had. There would be dead cats under her things, of that I was certain. The live ones didn’t have long to go either, and would be collected by Animal Control, quarantined, evaluated and most likely euthanised.
Then, Mildred’s things would be put into dumpsters by workers dressed in white de-con suits, with artificial respirators to keep the diseased air out of their lungs, the very air that I breathed into mine every second that we lingered in the doorway. I knew she was ill, and living in absolute squalor and disease, yet I simply could not drag her away from her world, the only one she understood, and take her to the hospital where she would be stripped, and showered, and given clean clothes, and put in a sterile room where air flow and empty space would suffocate her. Intelligence burned brightly in her vivid blue eyes, eyes as clear as my own, and I knew she was far from legally incompetent. She could not, and never would understand how these strangers entered her world and dragged her away, never to see it or her “babies” again.
“Mildred, we have to go. Your neighbors complained about all of the stuff and the cats. We have a court order that says we have to take you to the hospital for an evaluation before you can come back. It will only take a few hours.”
She looked me in the eye, and I saw defeat and resignation in hers.
“Promise I’ll be home again?” she begged, the loosened her grasp, letting go of the doorframe.
I gained her trust only to betray her. It was the only way to get her to leave without physically dragging her, kicking and screaming away from her home. The crowd grew, and the spectacle grew along with it, so I did my best to restore a sense of normalcy, and made promises that I knew were empty, and took her hand and led her away, past the nosy neighbors, some of whom shook their heads and tsk tsk’d as we marched past them. There were no goodbyes, no see you when you get back, no get well soons, just a little old lady holding a stranger’s hand and walking to an ambulance and into a new, frightening life.
A person needs space to grow, using past experiences as a guide while forging ahead. The weight of decades of living must be shed as the years progress lest the weight of our accumulations make moving forward impossible. We need to let go in order to flourish, make room for new things and experiences, and learn to give up what once held importance, but with time became nothing more than a burden. There is a lot to be said about starting fresh, and getting a new start. Every day is a new beginning, memories that we cherish, lessons we have learned, mistakes made and overcome all take their place in the forging of what that beginning will become. Mildred was lost in the accumulation of what was, never letting go, and never moving forward. We rode to the Emergency Room quietly, her on the stretcher, lost in a world of her own thoughts, me behind her, writing my report, and trying to be objective with my words.
I have faith in most of the people I work with, and the folks at Elderly Affairs do a remarkable job with the limited resources at their disposal, but I couldn’t lose the sinking feeling that Mildred would be lost in the shuffle, and the people who took her “case” would miss the connection to the woman who tried desperately to hold on to the only thing she knew. Perhaps it is better that they did not see the squalor, be immersed in the odors, see the poor little kitty cats as they scurried through the debris. Maybe they would see this as a fresh case, an opportunity to show a woman who needed their help how to let go, and start anew.
I certainly hope so.
I heard on the news that there were over forty cats in her home, which had been condemned and scheduled for demolition. Some of them were suitable for adoption.
I spent my days off cleaning my basement. It was time to let go of some things, and make room for something new.
Captain Michael Morse is a Rescue Captain in the Providence Fire Department’s rescue unit and author of two books: “Rescuing Providence” and “Responding.” His blog was voted the winner of the 2012 CalCas Battle of the Blogs ‘Top Firefighter & EMT Blog.’ Cpt. Morses’s books & blog are great resources for EMTs and Firefighters- full of advice, news briefs, and day-to-day insider stories. To learn more about Captain Morse, check out our interview with him!
Name: Jody W. Profession: Registered Nurse (Home Health Nurse) Nominated by: Stephen N.
In December 2011, Jody W. saved a complete stranger’s life. As a Nurse, this wasn’t really something new; saving lives is in the job description. But this time was different; this time Jody saved a man’s life by giving him her kidney. Growing up, Jody saw the struggle of kidney disease and the life-saving power of organ donation first hand. Her close family members battled kidney disease, and several were given a new lease on life through organ donations. In July 2011, Jody put herself on a donation transplant list as a non-directed donor. Not even 5 months later, she was cleared to donate and matched with a recipient. In December, moments before her surgery, Jody got to meet the recipient of her kidney and his family. He is now doing well and on December 8th, 2012, Jody and the recipient celebrated their 1-year transplant anniversary! Jody is also very dedicated to international health and has been on 13 mission trips in Central America. She says she plans to use any prize money from Nominate a Hero on her next trip to Honduras!
Jody, the recipient of her kidney, and their families on the day of the operation.
Jody and the recipient looking GREAT 6-months post-surgery!
Name: Keven R. Profession: Sheriff’s Deputy Nominated by: Joel H.
Deputy Keven R. was on patrol in Dallas when he happened to notice something peculiar: a car’s brake lights sticking out of a lake. He immediately drove down to the reservoir, pointed his patrol car’s headlights across the water’s surface and got out of his car. That’s when he realized that the car was slowly sinking- with two young women trapped inside. Deputy Keven R. immediately took off his utility belt and waded into the freezing water. He then swam to the car and shattered the car window’s glass. Inside, the two women were beating on the window, begging for help and telling him that they could not swim. He pulled both women out of the vehicle, ‘bear-hugging’ them as he swam them back to safety. Rowan barely got both women to shore before the car was completely submerged. Amazingly, the entire ordeal was captured on the Deputy’s patrol car dash cam. Check it out below:
Deputy Keven Rowan
Name: Bradley H. Profession: Volunteer Firefighter & EMT, Full-time EMT Nominated by: Joyce H.
Brad got his start in firefighting as volunteer at only 18-years-old. Now, he serves as a full-time EMT while still volunteering his time as both an EMT and Firefighter. In March of 2011, Brad was called to a residential fire. When he arrived, there was already heavy smoke coming from the home. Recognizing the urgency of the situation, Brad and his team bravely entered the home–without gear–to rescue a bed-ridden woman trapped on the second floor. Within minutes, Brad and crew had the patient secured in an ambulance and on her way to the hospital. For his heroic action and quick-thinking, Brad was awarded the Medal of Valor.
Brad H. receiving a Medal of Valor and Lifesaving from his Fire Chief.
Name: Mrs. Ridge Profession: Educator Nominated by: Vicky P., Debra P., Ginny B., and Zena B. (Parents of current and previous students)
Parents of Mrs. Ridge’s students simply cannot say enough about the impact this inspiring educator has on their children, both academically and personally. They note her ‘incredible spirit, kindness, generosity and excellence as a teacher and citizen.’ Comparing her teaching abilities to being ‘able to leap tall building in a single bound,’ they shared all the ways her dedication and innovation has inspired their children to develop a love for learning. Mrs. Ridge is known for the family-like atmosphere she fosters in her classroom and unique ability to tailor a lesson plan to a diverse group of students by truly getting to know each of her students. She has also been known to dip into her own pocket to make sure she can give her students the very best despite budget cuts in her school district, even going so far as to provide lunches for students that would otherwise go without and donating used clothes from her own home to her students’ families. This educator is truly viewed as a ‘hero’ and ‘angel’ by her students and their families.
