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Beyond the Byline: Never text and drive, period

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Sold-out Kirby Fest offers fun for a cause

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; McCarthy Tire Service was honored for its commitment to the life-saving mission of the Red Cross at last week&#8217;s Heroes Celebration, sponsored by the Northeastern Pennsylvania chapter of the American Red Cross.</p><p>Recipient of the Community Impact Hero Award, McCarthy&#8217;s provides all the maintenance for the Red Cross fleet of disaster response and blood collection vehicles. Keeping these cars and trucks on the road 24 hours a day, seven days a week is vital to serving the mission of the Red Cross.</p><p>&#8220;Recognizing the critical role that blood often plays in a patient&#8217;s recovery, Kevin Duffy and his team from the truck repair shop go above and beyond traditional maintenance,&#8221; said presenter Bob Stanley, Financial Consultant, Community Bank and member, Red Cross Luzerne County Leadership Council. &#8220;The shop provides responsive service &#8212; completing jobs overnight, providing early-morning roadside service and even driving mobile buses themselves &#8212; all to ensure that blood drives operate on schedule and patients have access to lifesaving treatment.&#8221;</p><p>Dave Skutnik, Regional Director of Communications for the American Red Cross Eastern PA, said McCarthy was honored for their overall long-term support.</p><p>&#8220;But especially for their help over the last three months when we were having significant mechanical problems with our bloodmobile,&#8221; Skutnik said. &#8220;The blood collection part of the bus worked fine, but it was having driving challenges to reach the blood drives. McCarthy&#8217;s helped us numerous times get the bloodmobile to where it needed to be.&#8221;</p><p>Skutnik said McCarthy&#8217;s mechanics stayed late, came in early and even had their mechanics drive the bloodmobile to some blood drives so that Red Cross could ensure that blood would not go uncollected, thus causing further challenges to the already short blood supply.</p><p>&#8220;Thanks to the dedication of McCarthy&#8217;s employees, our bloodmobile was able to make it safely to each scheduled blood drive, ensuring that the collection of lifesaving blood could continue,&#8221; said Bill Goldsworthy, Executive Director for the Red Cross of Northeast PA. &#8220;Without it, we might not have been able to help patients in need.&#8221;</p><p><strong> Heroes all</strong></p><p>In addition to McCarthy Tire Service, 12 others were honored &#8212; ordinary people performing extraordinary acts of heroism.</p><p>&#8226; <strong>Ashton Strish, Joseph May and Samuel Troy</strong> were riding a Northwest Area High School van last May when the driver of that van started having trouble breathing, and then passed out. As the van continued down the highway out of control, Joseph quickly grabbed the wheel. While Samuel lifted the driver&#8217;s foot off the gas pedal, Joseph pulled the van over, put it in park and called 9-1-1. At the same time, Samuel and Ashton pulled the driver out of the van and laid her on the ground. Emergency crews arrived shortly after. Keep in mind, these three teenagers saved this woman&#8217;s life without any of them having a driver license, or having experienced a driving or medical emergency before.</p><p>&#8226; <strong>Shaun Skursky</strong> &#8212; There&#8217;s a video you might remember seeing last April &#8212; a young boy was on vacation in South Carolina when he got his foot stuck in a pipe at the bottom of a lazy river. In the video you can see his friend try to pull him up for air, but the boy remains trapped under the water.</p><p>Shaun started breathing air into the submerged child&#8217;s mouth while trying to pull him to safety. Finally, pool maintenance shut off the pumps, which released the boy&#8217;s foot. Miraculously, after almost eight minutes under water, the child survived, surely thanks to the underwater breaths he received from Shaun.</p><p>&#8226; <strong>Chris Halecki</strong> &#8212; The Hanover Township Fire Lieutenant was at a high school basketball game in Luzerne County this winter when an 82-year-old man collapsed in the stands. The man had been watching his grandson play when his pace maker stopped working.</p><p>Chris sprang into action, using an automated external defibrillator to get the man&#8217;s heart beating again. The grandfather survived and now has a new pacemaker. The man&#8217;s family credits Chris for saving his life.</p><p>&#8226; <strong>Brian Mandak, Josh Walper, Mike Zapotocky</strong> &#8212; While most of us would run away from a burning building, firefighters run into them. Last April, the Hazleton City Fire Department was sent to a home with heavy smoke and flames, where a woman was stuck inside.</p><p>The firefighters brought in a hose line to push the fire back and continued the search. They quickly found an elderly woman lying face down on the living room floor unresponsive. These men rescued her from the home and brought her out to an EMS team waiting outside.</p><p>&#8226; <strong>Kevin Cardoni</strong> &#8212; Anaphylactic shock is a serious, life-threatening allergic reaction that can be incredibly scary for the person experiencing it and for those around them. In August, Cardoni was headed to a sandwich shop when he was alerted to a person who had been stung by several bees and was struggling to breathe and going in to shock.</p><p>While the victim did have an EpiPen, no one knew how to use it. That&#8217;s when Kevin stepped up, administered the life-saving medication, which allowed the victim to start breathing normally again. Turns out, Kevin had just completed a Red Cross First Aid class the day before.</p><p>&#8226; <strong>Brian Hepler</strong> &#8212; Hepler&#8217;s action offers more proof that having first-aid training makes everyone in your radius that much safer. Brian was out to what he probably thought would be an uneventful lunch with his wife, Trudi, until someone at a nearby table started choking on her food.</p><p>Two people tried, unsuccessfully, to administer abdominal thrusts. But it was Brian&#8217;s skills and willingness to help that saved the life of a woman who thought she might never see her children again.</p><p>&#8226; <strong>Joe Stager</strong> &#8212; Last June, Stager was working at the Wilkes-Barre Township Barnes &amp; Noble in the Arena Hub Plaza when an EF-2 tornado formed and barreled right through the store.</p><p>Joe said the wind was so powerful, he thought the roof might collapse. While fearing for his own life, Joe still shielded two of his fellow employees from flying glass and other debris by hiding them under an anchored information desk.</p><p>Joe covered them as the tornado ripped through the building. The wind left substantial damage to cars in the parking lot and the store itself, but Joe&#8217;s quick thinking and selflessness kept his colleagues safe.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">American Red Cross Everyday Heroes: Shaun Skursky, Christopher Halecki, Brian Mandak, Josh Walper, Kevin Cardoni, Brian Hepler, Samuel Troy, Joseph Stager and Kevin Duffy. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/web1_Red-Cross-group.jpg</photo0><caption0>American Red Cross Everyday Heroes: Shaun Skursky, Christopher Halecki, Brian Mandak, Josh Walper, Kevin Cardoni, Brian Hepler, Samuel Troy, Joseph Stager and Kevin Duffy. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/web1_TTL041719redcross15.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Kevin Duffy, center, is given the Community Impact Hero Award for his help through McCarthy&#8217;s Tire Service in caring for the American Red Cross bloodmobile. At left is presenter Bob Stanley, Financial Consultant, Community Bank and member, Red Cross Luzerne County Leadership Council; at right is Bill Goldsworthy, executive director of the local chapter of the American Red Cross. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/web1_TTL041719redcross15.jpg</photo1><caption1>Kevin Duffy, center, is given the Community Impact Hero Award for his help through McCarthy&#8217;s Tire Service in caring for the American Red Cross bloodmobile. At left is presenter Bob Stanley, Financial Consultant, Community Bank and member, Red Cross Luzerne County Leadership Council; at right is Bill Goldsworthy, executive director of the local chapter of the American Red Cross. </caption1><photoCredit1>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Bill O&#8217;Boyle</p><p>boboyle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Bill O&#8217;Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

McCarthy Tire Service: Commitment to Red Cross life-saving mission