Southern Nevada Red Cross honors acts of heroism

There is something going on out there that we do not understand.

How can we explain Jonah Schreiner?

He was 16, a student at Veterans Tribute Career & Technical Academy.

He was a lifeguard at the Rhodes Ranch pool.

He was sitting around one afternoon last September. He was bored, nothing to do on a rainy day before he headed to work.

That is where everything got weird.

What happened next is why Schreiner, now 17, was decked out in a suit and tie on Tuesday. It's why his proud dad looked on, why his mom teared up. It's why the American Red Cross, one of the nation's largest charities, chose to call him a hero.

On that boring day in September 2011 in the southwest valley, Schreiner got up from the sofa and walked over to the back window to watch the rain fall.

What's that in the pool?

He looked closer. It was Hope, his baby sister.

He turned to his 13-year-old sister, told her to call 911.

He went outside. He scooped Hope into his arms. He laid her on the pool deck.

She was blue. She was unresponsive. She was tiny, 18 months old.

Schreiner had received his CPR certification from the Red Cross only a few weeks before. He specifically learned how to perform it on little kids.

So that's what he did. No thought. Just action. Just like the emergency medical technician he wanted to become when he was older.

Hope vomited.

Schreiner kept going until the paramedics arrived. They got Hope to the hospital. She recovered.

Schreiner was one of 11 people honored Tuesday by the Southern Nevada Chapter of the American Red Cross. The event, in its sixth year locally, honors "everyday heroes," regular people who have done something extraordinary.

The point, the Red Cross says, is to let everyone else know that there are, in fact, selfless people out there. That the crime and politics that dominate the news aren't the whole picture.

The world is full of good, they say. Stand up. Recognize it.

"When people don't hear that these things are happening, people tend to turn inward," said Lloyd Ziel, the organization's spokesman.

Jennifer Raime, who organized the event, said there were so many nominations for the 11 awards that it was difficult to pick just one recipient in each category.

The categories include Good Samaritan, military, firefighter, animal rescue, medical professional and a few others.

The people honored included a man who pulled someone from a burning car after a crash, a teenager who puts together care packages for families who lose their possessions in fires, a clinic that has provided free health care and immunizations to low-income children for the past 17 years, and an Air Force doctor who rescued his own rescuer during a hiking incident.

The doctor, Maj. Jeremy Kilburn, had broken his leg. But a paramedic was badly injured trying to save him. Kilburn treated the medic until more help arrived.

There was also Derris Hunt, a personal trainer at The Mirage.

Hunt said he loves his job. He loves helping people get fit, live healthy lives. He said he gets great satisfaction when he receives a letter now and then from guests who write to say, after going home, they kept doing what he taught them during their stay in Las Vegas.

But work wasn't enough for him. He said he was looking to do a little volunteer work last year when, out of nowhere, he heard this commercial on the radio.

The ad urged listeners to donate their old cars to the Blind Center of Nevada.

What's that? Hunt wondered.

So he called the place up.

It turned out that the center's program manager, Samantha Steele, was right then trying to figure out how to start a fitness program at the center. She said many of the center's clients are diabetic, overweight, or have other health problems to go along with their blindness.

So a match was made.

Hunt started volunteering. But he did more than teach the clients fitness tips. He also got them equipment. He started setting up a whole routine. He got people so involved, a handful of them even participated in a 5K walk this past weekend, he said.

Things went so well, he said, that a couple of the blind walkers "folded up their canes and jogged the rest of the way."

So. The radio commercial, the phone call, the need. They all matched.

The injured doctor saving his own rescuer. A perfect match.

The boy who happened to have just received his CPR certification before his baby sister nearly drowned. A match.

That is what's going on out there, whether or not we can explain it.

Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.