* 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.

* New York's Bravest

RICHARD DAVAN: The firefighter battled bitter cold and smoke to rescue an unconscious 10-year-old Brooklyn girl from a burning building. He has since been promoted to Lieutenant.

* Freedom

MARIO TAPIA: A native of Chile, and founder of the Manhattan-based, non-profit Latino Gerontological Center, he has dedicated himself to helping the elderly.

* Community

SYLVIA WOODS: The owner of famed soul food restaurant "Sylvia's" serves thousands of free meals for charitable groups each year and helps ex-prisoners re-enter society by giving them jobs.

* Educator

JANE PACELLI-VAN AUKEN - A coordinator of the state Dept. of Education's Even Start literacy program, she has helped hundreds of low-income, under-educated Brooklyn children - as well as their parents - learn to read and succeed.

* Courage

ANTHONY GALLO: The straphanger tackled a deranged, knife-wielding homeless man who had slashed a woman on a Brooklyn subway train and held him for cops.

* Young Heart

ASHLEY MARTINEZ - The then-16 year-old teen calmly led 16 panicked horses out of a Staten Island riding stable to safety after the roof blew off from a nearby explosion.

* Leadership

SALVATORE MANISCALCO: As a rookie cop in the 34th Precinct in Washington Heights during the crack wars of the 1980s he started a Police Athletic League basketball program to give local kids an alternative to the streets. The program is still going strong with 15 teams. *

* New York's Finest

TIRZAH GONZALEZ -Police Officer Tirzah Gonzalez, 27, has been a housing cop at PSA-5 in Spanish Harlem for three years and, after 9/11, dug through the Staten Island landfill, finding human remains and ID's. Tough as the job gets, this Queens woman has never once thought of quitting.

* Lifetime Achievement

BOB TISCH - The business mogul contributes to scores of Big Apple charities and is one of the founders of Citymeals-on-Wheels and a co-founder of Take the Field, a non-profit group that refurbishes some of the worst sports fields at city public schools.