The Red Cross is seeking nominations for its Inland Empire “Heroes Awards”. To find out more, we reached out to Brianna Kelly, the Regional Communications Manager of the Southern California region of the Red Cross. And asked her about the Inland Empire Heroes Awards nominations where citizens from the Riverside and San Bernardino area nominate other local residents they believe have made a difference in their communities.
“At the Red Cross you know we are out in the community everyday, and we know there are so many incredible individuals across our region and we really wanted to celebrate people that are making a positive impact and that embody the spirit and the mission of the Red Cross as well”
The Red Cross will be looking for nominations for a series of categories that may fit everyday people you know in your life.
“We have a lot of great categories that people can nominate in, so we have animal welfare hero, corporate hero, disaster services hero, first responder hero, gift of life hero, good samaritan hero, service to the armed forces hero, and also a category for youth heroes so that's for anyone age 18 or younger.”
The Red Cross is encouraging you to nominate someone you might know for any of these categories. From last year, there has been a variety of citizens who have been honored for their efforts, including Mike Johnson.
“We had a really inspiring story from our good samaritan hero Mike Johnson he was just out you know having a regular day playing a game of pickleball with one of his friends actually who collapsed, and suffered a cardiac event and Mike was able to perform CPR and ended up saving his friend’s life.”
This is just one of many incredible stories about everyday unsung heroes around the inland empire, and there are many other stories to explore. If you know someone who may have a similar story, you may want to consider nominating them for an award. Also from last year, an example of a recipient of the animal welfare hero would be a story from Laurie Rich.
“Our Animal Welfare award winner her name was Laurie Rich and she has an organization called 'Taking It to the Streets' with Laurie and Sheera and they focus on helping pets in the homeless community and taking care of their needs and they do a lot of great work helping animals out in the community and also the owners of animals as well."
That was Brianna Kelly, the regional communications manager of the Southern California region of the Red Cross. If you are interested in nominating someone you know that is an ordinary person that has extraordinary courage, feel free to go redcross.org/ieheroes. Nominations are due by Friday, December 16th, and the ceremony will then take place next year on Wednesday, March 8th, at the Ontario Convention Center.