All it took was a faint cry of “help” for David Lester to take action.
Last October, when he got home from work one day and saw smoke coming from his neighbor’s house, he ran over to find her on the floor, badly burned.
“She was just in horrific condition, not to mention her house was filling up with smoke,” Lester said. “I picked her up and took her out to catch a breath of fresh air ... We got her treated, and it’s all a happy story after that.”
Lester is one of 12 area residents whom the American Red Cross of Summit, Portage, and Medina Counties will honor at its 21st annual Acts of Courage event Thursday at the Hilton Akron/Fairlawn.
The local chapter of the Red Cross also will celebrate 100 years of service at the sold-out event.
Every year, the event honors local residents who exhibited bravery in the face of a crisis the previous year.
Each of the honorees saved a person’s life, including Lester, who rescued his Akron neighbor from the fire. After two months in the hospital, she’s finally back home safe.
“When I saved her, I wasn’t looking for anything,” Lester said. “Just knowing she would be OK was enough.”
Akron Police Officer Marcus Muster also will be honored for pulling a woman from a burning building. As he was patrolling an area in his squad car in May, he received a call to head over to an apartment fire in the Highland Square area.
As he helped secure the scene, he and an Akron firefighter saw an elderly woman wandering inside the building in a dazed state. The firefighter sprang to action and Muster followed. Without any equipment, Muster helped pull the woman to safety.
Cody Alstadt and Christian Thacker, both of Coventry, and Summit County Sheriff’s Deputy Tim Kesinger will all be honored for saving a man from drowning. Alstadt and Thacker heard frantic cries coming from the Iron Channel of the Portage Lakes on a cold February night. There, they found a man thrashing in the water.
Thacker and Alstadt worked to pull the man to a dock. They couldn’t pull him up out of the water, so Alstadt climbed into the lake and Thacker assisted to keep his head above water until Kesinger arrived and pulled him to safety.
John Slagter II of Hinckley is this year’s youngest honoree. At just 16 years old, John (who is now 17) saved a woman from drowning last September.
His neighbors were hosting a 22-year-old exchange student from Ethiopia, whom they pulled from the bottom of their pool. They began performing CPR, and John noticed his neighbor’s hand placement wasn’t correct. He stepped in and performed CPR until the student started breathing.
“I was just glad I did something that helped the lady,” John said. “It feels very good.”
Akron fire medics Aaron Byard and Lukas Burns, along with Akron police officers Jeffrey Leslie, Christopher Schnee and Steven Snyder, will all be awarded for their quick response as well.
Burns and Byard responded to Chapel Hill mall last September to find a man unconscious and trapped inside a burning car. The officers responded shortly after, and the five worked together to pull the man from the car, despite some officers lacking protective equipment.
Josh Looser of Kent is another honoree who acted quickly on a car passenger in need. While he was working at a Swensons Drive-In in March, he noticed a woman choking in her car. He knew it would be too difficult to pull her from the car, so he improvised and performed abdominal thrusts until he successfully dislodged the food.
On top of recognizing selfless heroes, the Red Cross also will present the H. Peter Burg Award to Kevin O. Thompson, who has shown service to the community through his commitment to humanitarian causes, charitable organizations and the welfare of the area.
The Red Cross is always accepting nominations for the next batch of heroes at www.redcross.org/neoheroes. And as the latest batch of honorees illustrates, a hero may be closer than you think.
“I’m not just going to stand there and let something happen when I can intervene and change the outcome,” Lester said. “Most of us are kind of willing to go the extra mile, even put ourselves in danger to save our neighbor.”
Theresa Cottom can be reached at 330-996-3216 or tcottom@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @Theresa_Cottom .