WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Bend, Oregon, letter carrier was among five “Heroes of the Year” honored Sept. 10 by the National Association of Letter Carriers’ (NALC).
Steve Filson, a member of NALC Branch 1937 in Bend, saved fellow unionist Jim Lascurin in 2012 after Lascurin collapsed in a Bend parking garage with a rare form of heart failure. Physicians later said that had Filson, a former Navy medic, not acted immediately by giving Lascurin CPR, Lascurin would have died. That type of heart failure has only a 5 percent survival rate.
For his action, Filson was named the Western Region Hero of the Year by the international union.
Jermaine Shirley of Branch 379 in the Bronx was named National Hero of the Year. Last December Shirley helped save several people from a fire in his own apartment building. He was just setting out for work when he smelled smoke. He alerted residents at all six apartments, called 9-1-1, and helped several residents, including an 11-year-old child, to safety.
All of the honorees are examples of “courage, compassion and dedication or all three,” said Letter Carriers President Fredric Rolando. “They do these things because they’re in the neighborhoods six or seven days a week and they know when something’s wrong.”
National AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler of Portland, Oregon, attended the ceremony held in Washington, D.C.
— Press Associates Inc. union news service
