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CityWatch awards event honours employees for their roles
in incidences during 2005
CityWatch 2005 photo gallery
The CityWatch community safety program celebrated the actions taken by eight members of the Toronto Public Service during 2005 at the CityWatch Annual Awards event on February 23 (2006). The highlight was the presentation of the Annual CityWatch Award to Jason Cooper of the City's Policy, Planning, Finance and Administration Division.
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| Jason Cooper was chosen as the winner of CityWatch's overall annual award for 2005. |
In addition to the monthly award recipients and their families, guests at the evening event included members of City Council and the City divisions, agencies and employee unions that help to make CityWatch a success in pursuing the goal of safe, caring communities. Nominators and staff who participate as members of the CityWatch Working Group (which reviews nominations and selects the winners by vote) also attended.
Mayor David Miller, who was not able to attend, sent his greetings and congratulations in a videotaped message that was played for the audience at City Hall. Mark Dailey of Citytv was master of ceremonies.
Ontario Chief Justice Roy McMurtry, who chairs the Mayor's Advisory Panel on Community Safety, and City Manager Shirley Hoy were the guest speakers. Monte Kwinter, Ontario's Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, joined them on stage to present the awards. Bell Canada, corporate sponsor of CityWatch, presented a cheque for $1,000 to Jason Cooper's charity of choice - the Terry Fox Foundation - as well as giving Jason a personal gift. Liz Benedik represented Bell.
The CityWatch Working Group chose Jason as the outstanding example of an employee contributing to community safety (in 2005) through actions that are not part of his regular work. (Jason works in customer service at North York Civic Centre.) He applied the Heimlich maneuver successfully on a child who was choking violently on food in a restaurant where he was having lunch one day last year.
The committee had to choose the grand prize winner from among many commendable employees who received regular monthly CityWatch awards last year. Each of the following employees who received regular CityWatch awards during 2005 were honoured again at the February 23 reception. The following descriptions summarize how these municipal workers took action do to help people in need by intervening and obtaining professional assistance.
Corrado Amato and Aiyadurai Sivapalan of the City's Toxic Taxi program went to the aid of an elderly woman who they saw sitting by the roadside on a cold winter day. She proved to be ill and was later treated by paramedics.
Travis Keay, a Toronto Zoo worker, received a CityWatch award for taking action when he encountered a single-car accident near the zoo one day last winter. After calling for professional help on his cell phone, Travis comforted the injured driver and helped divert traffic.
Rob Signoretti of Transportation Services put police on the trail of a young man who had grabbed a woman's purse and run into a ravine. Police arrested the man and recovered the purse.
Paul Murphy of the Toronto Zoo helped an elderly man who was lying by the roadside near the zoo, shivering and disoriented far from home. Paul drove him to the zoo office and obtained professional help.
Justin Naulls earned two CityWatch awards in 2005. In one incident, a burst water main left a driver stranded in a car that had stalled in three feet of water on Caledonia Road. Justin Naulls, a corporate security officer, was first on the scene. He phoned for help and warned oncoming traffic of the deep water ahead. In the other incident, he helped at a car accident.
Tom Koidhis, a corporate security officer, found and returned a high school student's braille computer after it was dumped by someone who earlier stole the girl's backpack.
The event was organized by the Community Safety Secretariat, which administers the CityWatch program as a component of the Toronto's Community Safety Plan.
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