Local heroes honor for helping others

There was a moment when the flame-covered man stood and looked directly into Kevin Smith's eyes — a moment of connection where Smith could sense the man's panic and desire simply to run.

But Smith convinced trucker Henry Kuintzle the better course was to roll on the ground, dousing the fire that had engulfed Kuintzle's body after his big rig crashed outside Ukiah and burst into flames last year.

Though Smith burned his own hands and legs pulling Kuintzle from his fiery cab and patting out flames, he said it was that moment when his eyes met those of the Redwood Valley man, who later died, that hurt most.

Honored on Wednesday as one of 12 Real Heroes by the local American Red Cross, Smith, a Ukiah welder and man of few words, conceded he was not entirely comfortable with being honored.

"I really didn't think about fear," Smith said in a video shown during the 7th annual Real Heroes breakfast at Rohnert Park's Doubletree Hotel. "It really didn't occur to me that I could get hurt."

But Smith, 41, said he enjoyed meeting the others recognized for deeds involving a broad range of actions.

Several, like Smith, responded to immediate threats, putting their own lives on the line in the process.

Others dreamed of making a difference and, rather than shrink from the challenge, developed and funded programs to help folks in need.

Culled from more than 90 nominees, the honorees included:

-- Pilot Paul Bradley, paramedic Scott Freedman and Deputy Wade Borges, the crew aboard the Sonoma County sheriff's helicopter on April 2, 2009, when they plucked a 1-year-old girl, her father and a family friend to safety from a sinking boat in San Pablo Bay despite perilous conditions. The boat capsized minutes later.

"All three of us are fathers," Borges said in accepting the award,, "and it was something personal for us."

-- Jackie Andreucci, 17, of Petaluma, whose Girl Scouts Gold Award Project had her out in the rain one day last year delivering backpacks filled with cold weather supplies like tarps, warm socks, food, blankets and other goods to people who were homeless.

--Dr. Joshua Weil, chief of emergency medicine for Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Medical Center, who flew to Haiti a week after a devastating earthquake destroyed much of the country, and delivered "pure medicine" to hundreds of injured in very challenging conditions.

"You're not worried about regulations. You're not worried about payment. You're not worried about documentation," he said. "You're just doing the job."

--Lia Rowley, who had worked with troubled children for 30 years when the slaying of a 12-year-old foster child spurred her to develop The Children's Village, a community of 24 children and four surrogate grandparents that opened in Santa Rosa four years ago.

--Suzy Melvin, who, inspired by the new life sparked in her elderly mother by the gift of a pet cat, worked with numerous local veterinarians and the Animal Shelter League at the Rohnert Park Animal Shetler to create the Silver Paws program to help cover veterinary expenses for senior pet owners.

"You can't know how grateful these older people are," she said. "Sometimes all these people have is their companion animal."

--Ann Hancock, founder of Sustainable Sonoma County in 1997 and of the Climate Protection Campaign in 2001, who gained a commitment from Sonoma County and each of its 11 cities to cut green house gas emissions.

"It's the best example we've ever found of &‘Think globally, act locally,' " she said.

--Marine Lance Cpl. Hubert William "Billy" Perkins Jr., whose left leg was shattered when a Cougar armored vehicle he was driving in Afghanistan struck a roadside bomb last November, catapulting the 17-ton vehicle into the air.

Perkins, whose award was accepted by his father, Bill, said in the videotape that the Cougar was built to withstand such a blast, unlike the Humvees filled with friends that were lined up behind him that day.

"I'm happy to take the hit for them," he had said.

--Montgomery High School English teacher Ann Butler, who, with colleague Heather Garcia-Rossi, persuaded at-risk students to write journals about the real, often harsh issues that defined their lives. Later published as "Take a Walk in Our Shoes: Stories from the Fifties Hall," the project inspired students to write and reconsider their lives.

--Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman who pulled a burning woman from her flaming car last August, burning his own hands in the process.

Allman said he was self-conscious about his own injuries given the severity of those suffered by the victim, Jennifer Aikman, who later died.