The keynote speaker for this year’s Les Tupper Community Service Awards ceremony will be Mike Leum, L.A. County Sheriff’s Department and Montrose Search and Rescue (MSAR) volunteer.
MSAR originally started in 1947 by a group of Civilian Air Defense members wanting to help those in their community who had become lost or injured in the local mountains; however, their most recent humanitarian effort took a select group to Hatay, Turkey.
Leum, along with three volunteers from the MSAR team, Robert Sheedy, Cindy England, Collin Livens, flew 6,800 miles around the world to help locate and rescue individuals trapped beneath the rubble created by the 7.8 earthquake.
The crew went to Turkey thinking they would be part of the medical relief team. Instead they received a crash course in urban search and rescue. For six days, they worked 10 hour shifts side by side with volunteers and rescuers from around the world. Although there may not have been a common language, there was definitely a common goal … to rescue as many people as they could.
For those of you not familiar with the Les Tupper Community Service Award, it is an opportunity for the public to recognize volunteers for the tireless work they do in the community and elsewhere. This year’s honorees include Hayden Owen, Andrew Mihal, William Wade, Trish McRae, La Cañada Tournament of Roses, Montrose Search and Rescue, and Ernest Koeppen.
The free event, sponsored by the La Cañada Coordinating Council, will take place on Monday, April 17, at 7 p.m. at Flintridge Preparatory School’s Norris Auditorium.
For more information on the LCFCC, and what they do, visit LCFCC.info.
First published in the April 6 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
