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2003 Liberty Medal Winners
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POST HONORS NEW YORK'S HEROES
By RITA DELFINER
Tonight we’ll be singing the praises of the unsung heroes at the heart of the Big Apple at the New York Post’s second annual Liberty Medals award ceremony. |
STARS GATHER TO SALUTE LIBERTY WINNERS
By RITA DELFINER
A galaxy of stars will be at Gracie Mansion tonight to join in the applause for the 10 hometown hero winners of the New York Post's second annual Liberty Medals. |
NEW YORK'S MOVERS & SHAKERS TO PICK LIBERTY MEDAL HEROES
By RITA DELFINER
Some of the city's most prominent citizens will be the judges charged with selecting the winners of The Post's second annual Liberty Medal Awards, which sing the praises of New York's unsung heroes. |
MORE POWER TO HEROES OF BLACKOUT
BILL HOFFMANN
There were many unsung heroes during the tumultuous Blackout of 2003 - and here's your chance to tap them for a New York Post Liberty Medal Award.
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Honorable Mansion: Liberty Heroes to be Hailed at Gracie
By RITA DELFINER
The winners of the Post's second annual Liberty Medals, the ordinary heroes who make New York so extraordinary, will be honored at the people's house - Gracie Mansion.
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LIBERTY MEDAL: View the print edition
STARS SALUTE UNSUNG HEROES
By RITA DELFINER
Ten New Yorkers whose everyday heroism makes the Big Apple proud - and magnificent - were hailed last night as winners of the Second Annual Post Liberty Medals.
NEW YORK'S LIBERTY MEDAL WINNERS 2003
* Ambassador
BETH LANDAU: Took a lower Manhattan firehouse under her wing after 9-11 and raised money to treat 18 firefighters to a long weekend vacation in her hometown of Memphis.
PORTRAITS OF NEW YORK'S BEST LIBERTY MEDAL WINNERS 2002
9/11 KIN PRAISE S.I. 'EARTH ANGEL'
By RITA DELFINER
That's because Ariemma has donated plants, hedges, trees and a waterfall - and his time and effort to tend them - to help transform a Staten Island traffic median into "Angels' Circle," a serene memorial garden dedicated to those who died in the terror attacks.
BLIND MAN ENVISIONS ALL-ACCESS CITY FOR GUIDE DOGS
By MARIANNE GARVEY
After having near perfect vision his entire life, Coughlin, now 42, completely lost his sight over the course of a few weeks, due to a rare optic-nerve disorder. The former photographer has now become accustomed to life with the help of his guide dog, Ruger.
VOTES ARE IN FOR LIBERTY MEDAL HEROES
By RITA DELFINER
The judging is over, and many of the distinguished New Yorkers who selected the winners of The Post's Second Annual Liberty Medals met yesterday to mull over their choices and hand in their ballots.
Anthony Gallo: UNDERGROUND HERO
By ADAM MILLER
After a deranged homeless man savagely slashed a woman in the face on a Brooklyn subway train, straphanger Anthony Gallo sprang into action.
Nicole Burrowes: WATER-DELIVERY MOM A POWERHOUSE AMID BLACKOUT
By RITA DELFINER
Nicole Burrowes may weigh just 109 pounds, but she was a heavyweight blackout-buster, helping elderly residents who lost water at a Brooklyn housing project when New York's power went out.
Hope Fisher: SHE FOUGHT FOR HOUSE AND HOMES
By CYNTHIA R. FAGEN
It was the 1970s, and the fast-rising luxury residential towers around Hope Fisher's working-class Lincoln Square neighborhood suggested the single mother of two might soon lose her home to a new development.
Peter Blaich: THUGS NO MATCH FOR CITY FIRE HERO
By MARIANNE GARVEY
Off-duty firefighter Peter Blaich ran to the rescue the moment he spotted two thugs trying to rob a cabdriver. Blaich was on his way to take a final exam to complete his master's degree at John Jay College when he saw a crowd gathering on West 59th Street.
Rev. Francis Gasparik: PRIEST BRINGS DYING CHURCH BACK TO LIFE
By MARIANNE GARVEY
The Rev. Francis Gasparik says he never had a vocation to be a priest.
Even so, he's managed to become one of the most dedicated clergymen in the city - creating a food pantry that feeds more than 900 families in Manhattan and rescuing a church from the brink of closure due to neglect.
Susan Lucarelli: HELPING CRISIS KIDS 'BEAR' UP
By RITA DELFINER
The sweet story of how Susan Lucarelli came to be known to tens of thousands of kids as the "Bear Lady" began two days after Sept. 11, 2001, when an anxious young student in her class told her, "All I know is I need a hug."
Wendell O'Brien: HERO EMT HELPS KID BREATHE EASY
By MARIANNE GARVEY
Wendell O'Brien was due back at his job as an FDNY emergency medical technician when last week's blackout hit - but his wife pleaded with him to stay at their Queens home that night because she did not want to be alone.
Michael Martinez: CITIZEN GOT NYERS OUT OF A JAM
By RITA DELFINER
Michael Martinez, his wife and three children were strolling home after the lights fizzled 10 days ago and he heard the helpless honking at a gridlocked Queens intersection. There was no doubt about his next step - he just went out and directed traffic.
Cliff Aaron: SIGHTLESS MAN A HERO IN BLACKOUT
By CYNTHIA R. FAGEN
When the city was sucker-punched by the blackout last week, lawyer Cliff Aaron and three other passengers were trapped in a pitch-dark Wall Street office elevator. One woman panicked, thinking it was a terrorist attack, and began screaming they were all going to die.
Patrick Tully: BLACKOUT'S BEACON OF LEADERSHIP
By RITA DELFINER
Patrick Tully kept reciting a calming mantra of, "Follow me, you're all going to be OK" as he led several Wall Street co-workers down 32 flights of stairs during last week's blackout - all the while supporting an elderly man in excruciating pain from osteoarthritis.
Sylvia Woods: SERVICE ON SYLVIA'S MENU
By DYLAN FOLEY
Sixty years ago, Sylvia Woods came to New York from the small farming hamlet of Hemingway, S.C., and, after struggling as a hairdresser and waitress, she opened Sylvia's, the Harlem soul-food emporium that's become the most famous Southern restaurant in New York.
Yvette Beck: BRONX MATH 'MOM' A CLASS ACT
By RITA DELFINER
Here's the equation that helps explain why Yvette Beck is an award-winning math teacher: She's a devoted "calculus mom" to her Bronx students at Lehman HS.
Frank Mosco: HERO AIRED SCHOOL-BID SCANDAL AMID THREATS
By DYLAN FOLEY
Frank Mosco was the owner of a small technology company that was competing for a city contract to build school computer rooms in 1998 when four hoodlums pulled him off a Queens street into a van.
Ashley Martinez: GUTSY TEEN IS A FRIEND IN STEED
By RITA DELFINER
Champion teen equestrienne Ashley Martinez was the only one inside a Staten Island riding stable when the roof blew off from a nearby explosion - but she reined in her own fear and helped lead 16 panicked horses to safety.
Jarrit Scotti: GUARD HAS COLD COURAGE
By MARIANNE GARVEY
Jarrit Scotti was having a routine afternoon as a security guard at the Reliant Energy Plant in Queens when a couple of kids changed his life forever.
Scotti, 28, was inside the Astoria plant on April 14 when he heard children causing a commotion in front of a fence - screaming that a little boy was drowning in the East River.
Leila Boddie: HELPING BX. KIDS IS RIGHT UP HER ALLEY
By RITA DELFINER
Leila Boddie tells the kids of the Bronx youth bowling league that they won't bowl a perfect game if they're wearing a hat.
"No hats. When you come in the house you take your hat off," said the 56-year-old grandmother of three. "That's a respect thing."
Denis McHugh: PIANIST IS ONE OF CITY'S GREATEST HITS
By RITA DELFINER
If you feel like grabbing a mike and singing a song like "When Your Old Wedding Ring was New," Denis McHugh is the pianist for you.
Sister Kay Crumlish: FULL OF SISTERLY LOVE
By RITA DELFINER
A trip to Amsterdam 20 years ago to escort a wheelchair-bound young woman who wanted with all her heart to see the Anne Frank House gave Sister Kay Crumlish a special glimpse of the world through the eyes of another.
Daniel Bukantz: BX. SABER-RATTLER MENDED INT'L FENCES
By CYNTHIA R. FAGEN
Lifelong New Yorker Daniel Bukantz has done his fair share of saber-rattling - but not for war, only for peace.
In fact, the world-champion fencer and retired dentist has represented the United States fencing team in nine Olympics - four as a team member and five as a referee.
Peter Stanford: SEAPORT MUSEUM SKIPPER DESERVES DECK-ORATION
By ADAM MILLER
You can thank Peter Stanford for bringing life to the lower Manhattan jewel that is the South Street Seaport Museum.
Beth Landau: DOWN-HOME THANKS FROM MEMPHIS BELLE
By RITA DELFINER
She lives in an East Village apartment, but the Bravest at Engine Co. 33-Ladder Co. 9 are sure Beth Landau is an angel.
Melvyn Weiss: LAWYER'S HEART IS TOO BIG FOR HIS SUITS
By CYNTHIA R. FAGEN
If anyone told Melvyn Weiss it was time to slow down after a lifetime of good deeds because he's turning 68, it would be adding insult to injury - and boy, does he know both: He's a top class-action lawyer.
Tirzah Gonzalez: CITY COP IS A TRUE-BLUE HERO
By MARIANNE GARVEY
New York City Police Officer Tirzah Gonzalez spent about nine months digging through a landfill for body parts after the World Trade Center attacks. But as tough and grim as her duty was, this Queens woman never once thought of quitting.
Maureen O'Malley-Byrnes: LET'S EIRE IT FOR THE DANCING QUEEN
By RITA DELFINER
Maureen O'Malley-Byrnes' days go by in jig time because the dancer is busy keeping in step with her heritage and her community.
Tony Saccente: HE SHOWS ALL THE 'SIGNS' OF A CARING PERSON
By RITA DELFINER
Tony Saccente doesn't have to say a word for you to realize how dedicated he is to his job - it's there in his expressive face and flying hands.
Paul "Doc" Nicelli: EX-TROUBLEMAKER NOW MENTORS KIDS
By MARIANNE GARVEY
When Paul "Doc" Nicelli got kicked out of PS 59 in Manhattan more than four decades ago, he didn't know it was one of the best things that would ever happen to him.
Steven Irgang: A BRILLIANT $TROKE HONORS 9/11 KIN
By RITA DELFINER
When they were boys, Steven Irgang taught his younger brother, Doug, to swim. Now he's helping other kids make a splash in memory of his brother, a competitive swimmer who died in the attack on the Twin Towers. "We've helped out so many kids and I feel closer to my brother by doing it," he said of "Swim for the Future" - an annual swim-a-thon to raise money for the Andrew Fisher and Doug Irgang Scholarship Fund.
Thomas Dowdle Jr.: WOULD-BE FIREMAN SAVED 6 FROM BLAZE
By RITA DELFINER
When Thomas Dowdle Jr. saw smoke pouring from a window across the street from his Brooklyn home in January, he ran into the house, kicked in an apartment door and alerted the couple asleep inside - and then ignored the flames to rescue a blind cat.
Marvin Leffler: TOWN HALL'S SAVIOR TOOK CENTER STAGE IN RESTORATION
By DYLAN FOLEY
In 1978, Town Hall was a battered concert hall on West 43rd Street that had seen better days. Its owner, New York University, was going to sell the theater, and the wrecking ball was its likely future.
Norah Downey: HELPING THE CITY'S DISABLED TO BE CHAMPS
By JENNIFER FERMINO
If you spend a lot of time in Central Park, you may have noticed Norah Downey. You may have seen her on Saturday morning with her trademark sunglasses and a bicycle helmet on her head, lifting a 225-pound man into a wheelchair. Or, on Tuesday night, shouting encouragement to the handicapped athletes riding 6-mile loops.
Jane Pacelli-Van Auken: CARING EDUCATOR IS LETTER-PERFECT
By ERIC LENKOWITZ
Hundreds of low-income, undereducated Brooklyn families are turning their lives around because of a woman who gives them the most important tools for success - family values and literacy. Helping families read and succeed is a labor of love for Jane Pacelli-Van Auken - who's spent more than a decade motivating and educating people who thought they were destined to live impoverished lives of struggle.
Click Here to view the 2002 New York Post Liberty Medal Award Winners
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