Soldier of the Week – Army Spc. Kraig Lemme
October 11, 2009 by Kim
Filed under Soldier of the Week
by Dan Samaria
Publisher/GCC
October 8, 2009
Editor’s Note:
Hometown: Tucson, AZ
Awarded:Soldier’s Medal
Spc. Lemme and other soldiers were on a mission outside of Baghdad in October 2004 when a radio message alerted them that a tank had overturned into a canal. Lemme and three others went to investigate. They found an Abrams tank flipped over, with three soldiers trapped inside. Lemme and his team used tow cables attached to another tank to try and pull the overturned tank from the canal. While they were unable to haul the tank completely out of the water, the rescue team was able to raise it above the waterline. Lemme, a trained rescue swimmer, helped the three trapped soldiers escape through a hatch and swim to safety. Lemme was awarded the Soldier’s Medal on Sept. 15, 2006.
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think? dan@goldcoastchronicle.com
Source: Our Military
Patient of the Week – Sean Witsoe
October 11, 2009 by Kim
Filed under Patient of the Week
By St Jude
October 10, 2009
Sean Witsoe
4 years old
Diagnosis:
Sean was discovered to have medulloblastoma in the August 2008.
Sean’s Story:
When Craig and Katie became St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Partners In Hope® years ago, they never expected that one day they would need the hospital’s services. But in the summer of 2008, their little son Sean was found to suffer from a brain tumor, and they knew St. Jude was the best place for his treatment.
The morning Katie started to piece together what was wrong with Sean should have been a happy day: It was supposed to be the first day of preschool for Sean and his twin brother Matthew. But Sean woke up and vomited, something he had been doing on and off for weeks. The family had already ruled out a dairy allergy or acid reflux as the cause of his vomiting. Sean had been to a pediatric gastroenterologist, but the doctor couldn’t find anything wrong.
With dread, Katie started to add up all of the things that had lately affected Sean—the vomiting in the mornings, walking off balance, an eye that seemed lazy and problems swallowing. By the time Katie reached her computer to look up symptoms for a brain tumor, the dread was setting in.
That afternoon, Sean had a CT scan, and Katie and Craig’s worst fears were confirmed: Sean had a brain tumor known as medulloblastoma. He underwent surgery at a local children’s hospital to remove as much of the tumor as possible. As the little boy recovered, his parents started researching places for Sean’s continuing treatment. As monthly donors to St. Jude through the Partners In Hope program, Katie and Craig were familiar with the hospital. They soon realized that St. Jude was where Sean needed to be and obtained a referral.
At St. Jude:
At St. Jude, Sean began treatment immediately. He underwent chemotherapy and received 30 rounds of radiation. He also underwent a second brain surgery at St. Jude to remove more of the tumor.
Katie and Craig take comfort in the fact that Sean is getting the best care possible at St. Jude. “Sean still has a long way to go with treatment, but we are so very grateful for each day, each step in his amazing young life,” said Katie.
Sean is funny and likes to dance, and he loves spending time with Matthew and their three older siblings.
Source St. Jude
Wish of the week – Chris
October 11, 2009 by Kim
Filed under Wish of the week
By MWF/PIO
October 9, 2009
To a 6-year-old who loves toys, what could be more thrilling than a trip to Toys“R”Us? How about a shopping spree at Toys“R”Us with Geoffrey the Giraffe by your side and lots of other special perks! Chris, who has cerebral palsy, was blown away by his over-the-top experience that featured limousine transportation, a personal shopper and VIP status.
As his limo pulled up in front of the local Toys“R”Us store, Chris received a warm welcome from cheering store employees that were holding banners and balloons. It was a thrilling feeling when he got to hold all the money that he would be spending that day. He thought his day could not get any better but there was one more super-sized surprise for Chris – Geoffrey the Giraffe was there to escort him through every inch of the store. Together, they walked hand-in-hand as Chris scooped up everything on his list including a PlayStation 3 game console and a bunch of games, a guitar, a camera and his very own television.
Since he could not take Geoffrey home with him, Chris happily settled for a miniature version of his favorite giraffe. He left the store with several shopping bags and a huge appetite so he and his family headed to his favorite restaurant, the Big Cheese. It was the perfect after-shopping destination for Chris and his family to feast on what he called, “the best pizza I’ve ever eaten!”
Wish Granters: Ben Eisenberg & Michael Rose
Referred by: his home nurse
Adopted by: Mr. & Mrs. William Heffernan
Source Make A Wish Foundation
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com
Officer of the Week – Police Officer Mark J. Ellis
October 10, 2009 by Kim
Filed under Officer of the Week
Remember September 11, 2001
Angels Among Us
Police Officer Mark J. Ellis
Shield 11441
Transit Bureau, District 4
12/28/2001
Police Officer Mark J. Ellis
Shield 11441
Transit Bureau, District 4
(recovered)
Just a couple of weeks before the World Trade Center attacks, an off-duty Mark Ellis was visiting another fellow police officer and his wife at their Commack home.
He held their days-old baby girl in his arms and, moved by the tenderness of her new life, decided to put his plans in fast forward.
Ellis, 26, told his girlfriend of six years, Stephanie Porzio, that he wanted to marry her and have a family of his own. The next week, they would go shopping for rings.
They went to a jewelry store, but did not settle on anything because they wanted something that would properly symbolize what they felt for each other.
“He really just had a love for me, and I had a love for him that most people don’t find,” Porzio said.
That same Sunday, Ellis rode for the first time on the fishing boat he had purchased from his uncle. Other relatives were there, and Ellis was nervous about handling the 24-footer, but he drove it seamlessly on Long Island Sound.
With marriage plans under sail and his law enforcement career on track, Ellis felt he was about to create the life he wanted, surrounded by his friends and relatives.
But Ellis, a transit officer in downtown Manhattan’s fourth district and a lifelong Huntington resident, was on Delancey Street two days later with partner Ramon Suarez, when they got frantic radio calls.
They commandeered a taxicab and arrived on time to help terrified people out of the World Trade Center buildings. Ellis’ partner was caught in a news photograph sometime before the tower crashed, helping someone to an ambulance. Ellis sacrificed his life also, in the quiet and heroic way that relatives admired about him. His body was recovered before the Christmas Eve weekend, not too far from where his partner had fallen.
“Mark was making his plans to climb the career ladder, sail the Seven Seas on the boat, and God called him. He answered God’s call, and he answered that call while helping others,” said his uncle, Kenneth Nilsen, 40, who was among those who eulogized Ellis.
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani attended the standing-room-only funeral Monday at the Dix Hills Evangelical Free Church, praising Ellis’ courage. Ellis, who had received four medals for excellence, is the youngest New York City police officer to have been killed in the attacks.
Ellis’ parents, Elaine and Joseph Ellis, and a sister, Tammy Gardella of Georgia, survive him.
In the weeks after he was missing, the call he had been waiting for came from the Secret Service, accepting him as a candidate to the elite force. Relatives saw that as a posthumous recognition to his dedication and valor.
A 1999 criminal justice graduate from SUNY Farmingdale, Ellis graduated from the police academy in 1998. Formerly an auto mechanic, he liked cars and the outdoors. But he was also a prankster at the station house, where he often walked around shaving with his electric razor before going on duty.
Once, to effect a funny revenge on other officers who had played a prank on him, Ellis bought glue and sealed the offenders’ lockers shut. Another day, he conspired with his partner to stick fake bullet holes on the cars of other officers. By the same token, Ellis was willing to help whenever his colleagues, friends or relatives needed him.
“He was very fair and kind. and he was always there for me,” said Eric Semler, his partner for more than three years. ” … He was a good cop, a very good cop.”
– New York Newsday Victim Database 12/28/2001
Source: NYP Angels
Patient of the week – Abigail Perez
October 1, 2009 by Kim
Filed under Patient of the Week
By St. Jude/PIO
Sept. 28,, 2009
5 years old
Diagnosis:
Abigail was found to suffer from acute myeloid leukemia in 2007.
Abigail’s Story:
Little Abigail had always been the picture of health, but one day during a family vacation, one of her eyes began to bulge. Concerned, her parents, Marcelle and Billy, took her for an examination at their local hospital. On July 16, 2007, the family learned Abigail suffered from acute myeloid leukemia. Doctors gave her a 50 percent chance of survival.
Hurricane Katrina had wreaked havoc on the hospital in their hometown. Garbage collected in the hallways. No one came to remove the food trays from Abigail’s room, and ants moved in. “We went into survival mode,” Marcelle said. Abigail’s parents wanted a research hospital to provide cutting-edge treatment for their daughter. Their search led them to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The local doctor provided the referral, and St. Jude took care of travel arrangements.
At St. Jude:
At St. Jude, a nurse greeted the family. “Are you Abigail?” she said. “We’ve been waiting for you.” Abigail was instantly put at ease and loved the hospital. When they got into their room at Grizzlies House, Marcelle told her husband, “I think she’s going to make it.”
Abigail’s six-month treatment protocol provided five intense rounds of chemotherapy, necessitating inpatient stays. Each time before chemotherapy, she received a bone marrow aspiration and spinal tap. In addition, Abigail received a combination of intravenous and oral antibiotics to strengthen her immune system.
The battle against cancer affects the entire family. One day, Marcelle broke down on the elevator, and it was a St. Jude maintenance man who provided words of comfort. “There’s no crying today, miss,” he said. “We do miracles here, so you just dry up those tears.” It was exactly what she needed to hear. These small, random acts of kindness accentuate the treatment at St. Jude and make the difference between this and other hospitals – at least for the Perez family.
“No other hospital in the world compares,” said Marcelle. “Everyone from Dr. Ribeiro to the maintenance staff is on a mission.”
St. Jude is the only pediatric cancer research center where families never pay for treatment not covered by insurance, and families without insurance are never asked to pay. “Insurance doesn’t matter here,” said Marcelle. “If she needs a test, she gets the test.” It’s a good thing too. Abigail’s treatment costs a minimum of $20,000 per month; complications increase the cost. “I really believe the treatment costs could have bankrupted us,” said Marcelle, “but what choice did we have? Thank God there is St. Jude where parents do not have to choose between the life of their child and the huge financial burdens of skyrocketing healthcare costs.”
Marcelle says they are “evangelical about St. Jude” and calls it the “Disney World of hospitals.” She appreciates so many things about the hospital, from their lodging at Target House, where every need is anticipated, to the hospital’s school program.
Abigail now tests negative for leukemic cells. She’s done with chemotherapy and returns to the hospital every four months for follow-up. She’s an active girl who loves swimming, riding her bike and watching shows like Dora the Explorer, Wonder Pets and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
Source: St. Jude
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com
Wish of the Week – Maggie
October 1, 2009 by Kim
Filed under Wish of the week
By MWF/PIO
Sept.29. 2009
Greeted with a fragrant lei and a friendly “Aloha,” 10-year-old Maggie from Boynton Beach felt right at home during her wish trip to Hawaii. It was her ideal wish because of her love of the outdoors and her desire to have fun with her family. There’s so much to do and see in Honolulu and Maggie, who is battling leukemia, tried her hardest to do it all.
There was time for plenty of water activities including snorkeling in Hanauma Bay, with its horseshoe-shaped beach lined with mountains. To make her swim even more special, a turtle poked its head out to say aloha. She and her father also took a private surf lesson with the Hawaiian Fire Surf School at Kalaeloa Beach where the waves are tame enough for beginners to tackle.
At a traditional luau, Maggie and her family learned the hula, played island games and made their own leis. Maggie got a turtle painted on her arm and tasted the local specialty called poi. She had one word for the paste-like Polynesian favorite – “Eck!”
Having studied Hawaii in school, Maggie revisited her history class with a tour of the Battleship Missouri Memorial in Pearl Harbor. She even trekked to the top of Diamond Head, a dormant volcano, that she said is “like a crater.” She took a bus tour of Oahu, where she saw lots of breathtaking mountain and water views.
Maggie’s mother said, “It was a fantastic time for our whole family. Maggie had a ball every day.”
Wish Granters: Elaine Oswald & Carolyn Pucci
Referred by: a family friend
Adopted by: Jewelers for Children3
Source Make A Wish Foundation
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com
Soldier of the Week – Marine Corps 1st Lt. Elliot Ackerman
October 1, 2009 by Kim
Filed under Soldier of the Week
by Dan Samaria
Publisher/YC
Sept. 30, 2009
Editor’s Note:
Hometown: Washington D.C.
Awarded: Silver Star
Insurgents had a relatively free run of Fallujah the six months preceding November 2004. With little or no Coalition presence in the city, they had turned the urban landscape into a warren – like maze of fortified positions, booby traps, and sniper positions. The terrain could not have been more demanding for the Marines called in to clear the city. First, however, they had to establish a foothold, a task that fell in part to then-2nd Lt. Ackerman and his platoon. On November 10th, he and his men entered the city in what became a six-day struggle to open operational lines.
Insurgents attacked from numerous directions as Ackerman’s Marines pushed into the city. Twice in the early moments of the shooting, Ackerman braved enemy fire to pull injured Marines to safety – and then organized their evacuation. But in the midst of the battle, the vehicle sent to recover the injured could not find their position. Ackerman charged from his cover into the open, dodged what his citation calls a “gauntlet of deadly enemy fire,” and directed the vehicle to the Marines.
Later, as Ackerman and his team were clearing a building, he noticed that his Marines were exposed on a rooftop. After ordering them down, he took their place and began marking targets for tanks as insurgents fired at him from all directions. Despite suffering shrapnel wounds, Ackerman continued to direct the attack, and coordinated four medical evacuations. “There is only one alternative,” Lt. Ackerman said later. “It is to do it or not do it.” For his leadership and actions, Ackerman was awarded the Silver Star on Jan. 12, 2007.
Editor’s Note:
We would like to know what you think? dan@goldcoastchronicle.com
Source: Our Military
Officer of the week – Police Officer Vincent G. Danz
October 1, 2009 by Kim
Filed under Officer of the Week
Remember September 11, 2001
Angels Among Us
Police Officer Vincent G. Danz
Shield 2166
ESS-3
10/27/2001
Police Officer Vincent G. Danz
Shield 2166
ESS-3
(recovered)
Vincent G. Danz was a member of the New York Police Department’s Emergency Service Unit’s third squad in the Bronx. The elite unit’s officers are experts in areas like psychology, rappelling, scuba diving, first aid and marksmanship. Officer Danz liked the excitement and challenge of the E.S.U.
Officer Danz, of Farmingdale, N.Y., was also a husband, and a father of three daughters, including an 8-month-old. With the two older girls, he liked to watch “SpongeBob SquarePants,” a Nickelodeon cartoon.
“He was a special breed,” Felix Danz said of his brother, who at 38 was the youngest of nine children. “I’d always ask him if he had any good jobs lately. He’d say, ‘Yeah, I had this subway “pin job,” ‘ where some poor soul was taken out by the subway, or even worse, still alive.”
“The E.S.U. guys are the ones who go on the tracks, find some way to lift up the train and get those people out,” Mr. Danz continued. “He wasn’t boastful. He wasn’t one of those guys with the swelled chest at the bar. He loved his work and the guys that he worked with. They would die for one another. I think that goes globally for the N.Y.P.D. My brother and his partner went into the trade center without any questions. They knew what to do and how to do it. Unfortunately, this thing was bigger than either of them.”
– The New York Times 10/27/2001
Source: NYP Angels
Firefighter of the week – Battalion Chief Battalion 57 Denis A Cross
October 1, 2009 by Kim
Filed under Firefighter of the Week
By Dan Samaria
Publisher/YC
Oct. 1, 2009
Running for a Memory
The race seemed more important than ever. For 18 years, on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Dennis Cross competed in the Turkey Trot, a 5- kilometer race held in Flushing Meadows, Queens, where firefighters ran for charity. Now he would be absent.
His wife, JoAnn, used to operate a fitness studio and induced him to run with her. But once the children arrived, she stopped running. That was 15 years ago.
Yet she felt an unshakable need to have a Cross in the Turkey Trot to honor her husband, a battalion chief of Battalion 57 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. So she concluded she would be that Cross. And she would recruit additional firefighters to run, too, in honor of all the firefighters lost in the attack.
Chief Cross, 60, known as Captain Fearless, lived with his wife in Islip Terrace, N.Y. His favorite saying was, “Take care of the men and the men will take care of you.” Mrs. Cross was going to take care of his memory. She vowed she would finish this race and then begin an annual memorial run for her husband next April 27, the anniversary of the day they met.
For nine weeks, she trained, building up endurance. Race day came. She ran, as did her four children. She finished in 29 minutes. “I thought I was going to do it in 45 minutes,” she said. “I was proud of myself.”
Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 29, 2001.
At age 60, Dennis Cross had spent nearly two-thirds of his life as a firefighter in New York City.
And retirement wasn’t on his calendar anytime soon.
“He wanted to be the first to put in 50 years on the job,” said JoAnn Cross, his wife of 37 years.
Along with so many of his brethren, Cross’ career was cut short Sept. 11. The battalion chief for Battalion 57, based in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, was killed when the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed.
His body wasn’t recovered until a week later.
“The first three days it was more than hell,” said his wife. “When they found him on the seventh day, that was such a relief because we could bring him home. So many of our friends haven’t been able to do that.”
As is common in the profession, fighting fires was a family affair. Cross’ father, Charles, was a New York firefighter, as is his only son, Brian.
Cross joined the department in 1963 after returning home from a two-year tour in Vietnam, where he served in an Army communications unit, JoAnn Cross said.
In the department, Cross was widely admired as a gutsy firefighter and, later, as a respected leader.
“He was a quiet guy, but powerful,” JoAnn Cross said. “When he made captain, they called him Captain Fearless.”
He was promoted to battalion chief in 1993.
A frequent runner who kept himself in excellent shape, Cross was looking forward to competing in an annual 5K race around the Thanksgiving holiday in Flushing Meadows, Queens. Now, JoAnn Cross hopes to turn the race into a fundraiser for a local charity that aids burn victims.
Cross is also survived by three daughters and three grandchildren.
An estimated 3,000 mourners, mostly firefighters, attended Cross’ funeral Sept. 22 in Islip Terrace, Long Island, where he lived.
Profile courtesy of THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE.
Source Legacy
Officer of the week – Police Officer Jerome M. Dominguez
September 27, 2009 by Kim
Filed under Officer of the Week
Remember September 11, 2001
Angels Among Us
Police Officer Jerome M. Dominguez
Shield 10003
ESS-3
1/11/2002
Police Officer Jerome M. Dominguez
Shield 10003
ESS-3
Jerome Domínguez had gone diving off the coast of Long Island with some police pals who were also his friends outside the job.
After exploring the chambers of a shipwrecked boat, they glided up slowly and started popping up, one after another, to take their places on their boat.
But they noticed one of them, another police officer, was missing. And, without much hesitation, Domínguez was the one to jump right back in the water.
Returning all the way to the bottom, Domínguez found his friend lying unconscious inside the dilapidated ship with insufficient oxygen left. Pulling him up, Domínguez swam toward the light of the surface, alternatively taking on and off his oxygen mask to share it with the unconscious man.
Risking his own life, Domínguez saved his pal’s more than two years ago.
But it was not the first time, and it would not be the last, that the decorated New York City cop offered all he had for the sake of others. In fact, Domínguez did it regularly, whenever he encountered people in danger or on duty as a member of the department’s elite emergency services unit.
Domínguez, a West Islip resident who grew up in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx, was at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 and, according to reports from colleagues to his family, was making his way upward in the building when the north tower collapsed. He remains missing.
One of two sons of devout Catholic parents who spend much of their time trying to spread the faith, Domínguez, 37, had his own sense of mission.
” I once told him, ‘Jerome, don’t strain yourself so much’,” recalled his mother, Gladys Domínguez of the Bronx. ” And he said, ‘Look, Mommy, you save souls and I will save bodies.'”
After graduating from Mount St. Michael Academy in the Bronx, Domínguez entered the police academy in the mid-’80s. Following his July 1985 graduation, he became a patrol officer for a local precinct in the Bronx. Two years later, Domínguez, also in the Air Force Reserve, joined the highway division.
During the following years, he became committed to his job of helping people on the roads. Even when off duty, Domínguez carried power-cutting and other tools in his vehicle to help stalled drivers or to extricate victims at accident scenes, his relatives said.
Once, while heading to Texas for Air Force training in 1999, Domínguez encountered an overturned school bus with several children inside. He quickly took charge and rescued more than a dozen children before the bus burst into flames. His feat earned him praise, and he appeared on a television news showand was mentioned in newspapers that day. The Air Force offered him a permanent job, but he preferred an offer he got from the NYPD to join the emergency unit.
” He enjoyed himself helping people in some way, morally or physically,” said his father, Geronimo Domínguez, a physician who hosts a bible reading television program in Spanish. ” … He was very courageous.”
Besides diving, Domínguez left time to cruise on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle, sometimes along the Eastchester Bay coast near his parents’ house, formerly a waterfront home and fishing retreat of New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia.
In his last conversation with his father, some days before Sept. 11, Domínguez discussed the idea of a heavenly place for souls to rest in happiness after death. His parents find comfort in their strong belief that Domínguez is already there. ” He loved helping others, and there isn’t in the Bible or anywhere else a greater love than that, giving your life for others,” his father said.
– New York Newsday Victim Database 1/11/2002
Source: NYP Angels