The Salt Lake Area Chapter of the American Red Cross recently honored local individuals and corporations as "Lifesavers of the Greater Salt Lake Area."
At a fund-raising event, hosts Mark Eaton of the Utah Jazz and Doug Miller of KSL-TV introduced those "lifesavers" who are deeply committed to humanity through their leadership, funding and support of the community.The organization presented Samaritan Awards to Intermountain Health Care Inc., the nonprofit Community Services Council and Project Hope. These awards also went to Ken Knight of Sinclair Oil, Juvenile Court Judge Andrew Valdez, Ralph Montgomery and Carl and Rita Inoway.
The organization's Hero Awards went to Jeannie Barlow of the Utah AIDS Foundation, Gwen Page of the Salt Lake City Library and Gordon Ottley of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
IHC is involved in numerous projects to improve quality of life in the community. These include Baby Your Baby, the Immunization Care-A-Van and Utah Summer Games.
The Community Services Council, with Dick Winters as executive director, is the umbrella organization for many services, including The Utah Food Bank, Information and Referral Services, The Volunteer Center, LifeCare Services, Transitional Living Center and the Ouelessebougou-Utah Alliance.
Project Hope involves educators and health and human services workers in a joint effort to help families, particularly schoolchildren.
Knight is involved in a number of community organizations, including Utah Symphony Board, Salt Lake Area Chamber of Commerce, Economic Development Corporation of Utah and IHC.
Prior to his judicial appointment last year, Valdez was a trial lawyer with the Salt Lake Legal Defenders Association for nine years. He has been a member of the statewide Youth Parole Authority.
Carl Inoway, former dean of the University of Utah Graduate School of Architecture, took early retirement in 1992 to work to improve housing for low-income people.
Rita Inoway, director of Information and Referral Center, helped establish the first two shelters for transients. She was a member on the state's first Child Abuse and Neglect Board. She also served on the Salt Lake County Housing Authority.
Montgomery, a dentist, helped established the nonprofit Salt Lake Donated Dental Services Clinic, which provides free, full-service dentistry to the poor and homeless.
Because of Barlow's efforts, 30,000 Utahns were educated about AIDS and HIV in 1993. Last fall she was instrumental in bringing the national AIDS memorial quilt to Utah.
Page, a children's librarian, became a hero on March 5 when she calmly helped eight other hostages during the siege at the downtown library.
Ottley responded quickly when an elderly man had a heart attack on a Park City golf course last year. He performed CPR on the man for 30 minutes until the paramedics. The man survived. Earlier, Ottley saved a little boy's dog with rescue breathing after the dog fell into a fast-moving creek.