TAMPA, Fla. – June 7, 2021 – This month, the American Red Cross is honoring 11 exceptional individuals from Central Florida with Heroes Among Us awards. These men and women are silent heroes in our communities who embody the humanitarian spirit and selfless voluntary service of the global Red Cross movement.

“It is an honor and privilege to recognize the significant contributions of these community members who have gone above and beyond in their fields over the last year,” said Eric Corliss, Regional CEO of the American Red Cross of Central Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands. “These individuals exemplify what it means to act selflessly, while keeping the health and safety of their communities at the forefront during this challenging time.”

Meet the 2021 Red Cross Heroes Among Us.

Daniel Andruss
Telecommunicator, Hernando County Sheriff’s Office (Brooksville, Fla.)
The HCSO Emergency Communications Center is a team of 50 civilian personnel dedicated to sending law enforcement, fire, or EMS responders to provide assistance to the citizens of Hernando County. As an emergency 9-1-1 operator, Daniel Andruss is skilled under extreme pressure. On February 16, 2021, he answered a 9-1-1 line regarding the potential drowning of a 2-year-old who fell into the family pool and was found unresponsive. He assessed the situation and calmly provided CPR instructions, including compressions and rescue breathing, to the child’s mother. He continued these instructions until fire rescue arrived at the scene and was able to assume patient care. The child was airlifted to St. Joseph's hospital for recovery.

Dr. Scott Brady
CEO, AdventHealth Centra Care and Medical Director for Get Healthy Florida (Maitland, Fla.)
With the onset of the pandemic, Dr. Brady led access to testing across AdventHealth’s more than 50 Centra Care locations, providing them with the capabilities on how to diagnose and treat COVID-19 patients, while ensuring the safety of his own staff. Working tirelessly around the clock, Dr. Brady was looking ahead to the future, planning for distribution of the vaccine once it became available. Planning encompassed finding the right space, designing a safe and efficient patient flow, determining staffing needs, and logistical details to be able to serve the community for as long as needed. One event in January quickly turned into 25 events where 66,000 shots were administered supported by 30,000 volunteers.

Chaplain Kelvin Foster
Retired Veterans Benefits Administrator (Palmetto, Fla.)
Chaplain Foster believes that people of faith have spiritual gifts that are to be employed in service to others. This service extends deep into the community he calls home, where utilizes his life experience to provide a ministry of presence to disaster survivors through numerous emergency service agencies. After the onset of the pandemic, Chaplain Foster, also a 20-year Red Cross volunteer, was asked to help launch a national Virtual Family Assistance Center with one primary goal: to provide virtual care for families grieving the loss of a loved one to the pandemic. As a lead for that program, he has provided virtual care for countless families across the country, all while caring deeply for his own family who lost a number of loved ones to COVID-19.

Meagan Gallagher
Executive Director, Tijuana Flats Just in Queso Foundation (Maitland, Fla.)
Through its restaurants and the Just in Queso Foundation, Tijuana Flats supports organizations dedicated to helping people in times of need. During the COVID-19 crisis, under Gallagher’s leadership, support for local nonprofits continued through round-it-up fundraising campaigns, even as restaurants pivoted from dine-in to delivery, carry-out or curbside options. Gallagher is also recognized by her peers as leading by example as a dedicated volunteer and board member for several local nonprofits.

Tom Kammerdener
Senior Operations Director, Aging Matters in Brevard (Cocoa, Fla.)
From the beginning of the pandemic when there were so may uncertainties, Kammerdener was hailed by his organization for going above and beyond in his role -- working not just to continue, but to expand operations knowing the demand was going to increase significantly. In particular, under his leadership, the Meals on Wheels program produced 100,000 more meals in 2020 than 2019 by supplementing hot meals with nutritious frozen meals. He also supported the Home Care Program by making sure the aides had masks, gloves, hand sanitizer and shields to safely go into our seniors’ homes and deliver services as usual.

Martha Kronk
Registered Nurse, Shriners Healthcare for Children - Florida (Tampa, Fla.)
Nurses at Shriners are committed to excellence in every interaction with patients and families. Kronk is a living example of that mission in action. She is a dedicated floor nurse, outpatient clinic manager, outreach coordinator and quality control manager. She always provides love, care, enthusiasm and empathy to patients and families. She recently suffered a significant personal tragedy and returned rapidly with the same can-do attitude. Her compassion extends outside Florida as well, as she has helped develop medical missions in Guatemala and Haiti.

Ivan Melians
Loss Prevention Director, Hilton Grand Vacations (Orlando, Fla.)
In September 2020, Melians was wrapping up his day at Las Palmeras Resort in Orlando when he was alerted that a guest had collapsed in his hotel room. After rushing to the room, Melians, who was trained in CPR, carefully placed the gentleman on the floor, conducted an assessment and initiated chest compressions. He continued CPR for several cycles – approximately 11 minutes -- until Emergency Medical Services arrived. The guest was airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center where he had emergency coronary artery bypass surgery. For his quick action and persistence, Melians has been hailed as a hero by all involved.

Caryn Prather
Community Paramedic, Flagler County Emergency Services (Bunnell, Fla.)
After the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Prather was appointed as the Incident Commander for a mass testing site at Daytona State College’s Flagler-Palm Coast Campus. With the assistance of the Emergency Operations Center, she developed the plan for a drive-through testing site. For four months, she led a team of 156 medical and non-medical volunteers in testing 4,465 residents. After the drive-through site closed, Prather continued to provide testing to residents through the newly developed Rapid Testing Kits. Her willingness to put herself at risk to prevent the spread of the virus reflects on her selfless nature to protect the health and welfare of others.

Timothy Timmermann
Executive Director, Brevard Alzheimer's Foundation (Melbourne, Fla.)
In an emergency response to COVID-19, the Florida Department of Elder Affairs asked the Senior Resource Alliance, the Area Agency on Aging, to find a way to increase food assistance for isolated homebound seniors. A phone call to Tim Timmerman, a nonprofit partner, started the wheels in motion for a pilot program – Meals of Love – which later became a statewide initiative. The program paid local restaurants CARES ACT money to deliver hot meals to homebound seniors Within a month, over 3000 seniors were receiving meals. By June, the original program, conceived by Timmerman, reached one million meal deliveries.

Priya Tomerlin
Founder and President, Flagler Palm Coast High School Red Cross Club (Palm Coast, Fla.)
Tomerlin leads an active Red Cross Club of 29 students. During the 2020-21 school year, due to COVID restrictions, many of the traditional volunteer activities were not available. Instead, she guided her members to support local veterans remotely by creating a video and holiday cards. Her most significant accomplishment this year was taking a student leadership role in the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Youth Action Campaign (YAC) which spanned several schools. With her leadership, the YAC educated 10,742 people about IHL and engaged 4,773 in IHL activities.

Captain Heather R. Weaver
Operations Officer for the Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS), U.S. Army (Tampa, Fla.)
Captain Weaver is responsible for the execution of a highly complex process for assessment, testing, validating, and preparing U.S. military applicants to become new service members. At the start of the COVID pandemic, Tampa MEPS was forced to temporarily stop processing new recruits, which stopped communication between Red Cross and the families of new service members. Captain Weaver coordinated a new process and implemented a new procedure for collecting the critical family contact cards for the Red Cross to ensure emergency communications services could continue uninterrupted.

Heroes Among Us awards are made possible by the generosity of our community partners: Bob Miller Masonry, Inc. (BMMI), Circle K and Mosaic.

The American Red Cross of Central Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands serves 19 Florida counties through five chapters: Florida’s Space Coast (Daytona Beach), Greater Orlando, Mid-Florida (Winter Haven), Southwest Florida (Sarasota) and Tampa Bay; and the Virgin Islands territories of St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. John and Water Island. For more information, visit redcross.org. Also find us on Facebook and Twitter.

About the American Red Cross:
The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies about 40% of the nation's blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a not-for-profit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or CruzRojaAmericana.org, or visit us on Twitter at @RedCross.

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