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Retired Southern Section Lifeguard Chief and former International Surf Festival coordinator Dave Story was received the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award Thursday night during the Los Angeles County Lifeguard Medal of Valor Dinner. The annual dinner was held at the Seaside Lagoon in King Harbor.
Story retired in 2006, after 36 years as a Los Angeles County lifeguard. In 1980, he helped negotiate the first labor contract for Los Angeles County Lifeguard Association (LACOLA). He continues to serve as LACOLA’s trust fund treasurer. In addition to saving countless lives as a member of the lifeguard’s Underwater Rescue and Recovery Unit he once helped free a gray whale entangled in lobster trap lines.
During a heartfelt speech, Story expressed his gratitude to the many County lifeguards who mentored him throughout his three-decade career.
Also Thursday night, Los Angeles County Lifeguards Jeff Little, Cassady Roberts and Dylan Jones were presented the Medal of Valor for ocean rescues that resulted in five lives being saved. Lifeguard John Greger was presented with the Distinguished Service Award for saving the life of a medical center patient who had gone into cardiac arrest.
Retired lifeguard and former City of Redondo marketing director Jim Graham and former Redondo Chamber Manager Dennis McCarbery were honored for helping found the Medal of Valor dinner 32 years ago.
Lifeguard Little’s was recognized for rescuing three swimmers in Ecuador, where he was representing the United Stats Lifesaving Association. After swimming one of three distressed swimmers to shore, he swam back out in heavy surf to rescue the other two. Little instructed the weaker of the two men to hold on to his foot so he could tow him to shore, while he pushed the second man to shore.
Lifeguards Cassady Roberts and Dylan Jones were recognized for rescuing a man who had fallen off a dock at the Catalina Isthmus and become trapped under the dock. Despite their resuscitative efforts the man died while waiting to be taken by helicopter to a mainland hospital.
Lifeguard Captain John Greger was presented with the Distinguished Service award for assisting doctors at a medical center in restarting the heart of a man whose pulse had stopped.
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