27 of Lethbridge’s “Community Heroes” recognized at city hall ceremony

The recipients include:

Campbell Peat: In the summer of 2017, he was mountain biking in the coulees and saw another biker crash and hit his head on the ground. He called 911, comforted the man, and climbed up to the top of the coulees to direct first responders to where they needed to go.
Daniel Cavanaugh, Taylor Toner, Josie Hancock, Patricia Tapong: The four were just arriving to work at a local care facility this summer and smelled a fire. They eventually the fire in the basement near the hot water tank and used two fire extinguishers to put it out. The fire department says it likely would have spread rapidly if they did not react right away.
Sgt. Travis Evenson, Cst. Dave Easter, Cst. Josh Kurtz, Cst. James Steacy: The police officers were walking around the city last winter when they saw a person laying half in their car and half out. The temperature that day was between -21 and -28. The person was found with a syringe and a naloxone kit. They immediately administered the overdose-reversing medicine and gave the victim CPR while they waited for paramedics to arrive. The person ended up recovering.
Rodsheran Peake: At a historic downtown business, Peake was sitting on a loading dock and smelled something burning. He took several fire extinguishers to the site of the fire. By the time firefighters arrived, the blaze was already put out.
Sarah and Shaun Jorgensen: The husband and wife were driving and came across an unusually-parked vehicle. They found someone inside who was completely unresponsive. He performed CPR while she called 911 and relayed instructions from the operator to him.
Anthony Vercillo, Ramona Toms, Patricia Pearson: The teachers at a local school responded to a “serious incident” involving a student and were able to neutralize the situation. Due to the nature of the incident and the youths involved, further details about the event were not shared.
Cst. Marco Pagliericci: At a north side trailer park in April 2017, Cst. Pagliericci responded first to a call. A mobile home was completely engulfed in flames, while the fire was quickly spreading to nearby units. The officers were able to help an elderly couple, one of whom had serious mobility issues, get to safety before firefighters arrived.
Cst. Josh Bucsis, Cst. Nathan Shenton: They were called in February to respond to an incident of domestic violence. A man, who was under arrest, stabbed himself with a utility knife, causing profuse bleeding. The officers performed live-saving measures until paramedics could arrive.
Jim King, Julien Muise: At a local business, a customer fainted and was found to be unresponsive with no pulse and was not breathing. Two employees, King and Muise, gave the customer chest compressions while they waited for an ambulance to arrive. The customer eventually rebounded. Paramedics say the kind of chest compressions the two did were difficult for even trained professionals to do.
Greg Kostiuk, Sue Weighill, Mike Slavich, Carley Walker, Paige Peake: At a local school, a young boy well on the pavement outside, hit his head, and became unconscious. A teacher checked for a pulse while the principal called 911. Two moms who were picking up their kids, who happen to be registered nurses, volunteered to help and used an AED. The child eventually opened his eyes and started to remember things.
Dylan Rowse: This past summer, Rowse was driving to a grocery store when he saw a person in distress in another vehicle. He conducted CPR and called 911. The patient got his pulse back.

The youngest person recognized is Rachael Neufeld.

In August of this year, her parents noticed a fire had broken out in their backyard at around 5:00 am. The 15-year-old’s father tried to put it out while her mom called 911 and told Rachael to help out her three younger brothers and sisters, aged five, 10, and 13.

“I rushed to get all three of my siblings out of the house, and it was not easy because they were all very tired,” says Neufeld. “My one sibling wasn’t fully clothed so I had to get her something to wear, so I ran back to my room to get my robe for her to wear. We met my parents in the front yard, and soon after, the fire trucks came.”

Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services Chief Marc Rathwell remarked at how this year’s awards covered such a wide range of ages, genders, and other demographics.

“There’s no demographics for emergencies – they happen to everyone and it doesn’t matter what your age is, or anything, so it’s great when we can have people of all ages in our community helping out with everyone. We’ve had children helping parents out of burning buildings with medical issues to seniors helping other folks.”

Rathwell says, during a house fire in north Lethbridge this Thursday morning, there were four-to-six people who helped out tremendously and will likely be nominated for next year’s Community Heroes Awards. More details on the fire here.

by David Opinko

27 of Lethbridge’s “Community Heroes” recognized at city hall ceremony

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