Guiding Lights

James Odom
Mayor’s Office
At the ABC West alternative school, many of the students are in need of behavior assistance, wrote Tayyaba Ali. But when James Odom from the Mayor’s Anti-Gang Office spoke to students, they listened.

“Mr. Odom did an extraordinary job of articulating his anti-gang stance,” Ali wrote. “Not only was he informative and professional, but he actually held our students’ interest by getting on their level so they would listen. That was an event by itself.

“Mr. Odom is an asset to the city and society at large. Just getting one more person to turn away from that lifestyle is better for everyone, and I’m sure Mr. Odom does that every time someone hears him speak.”

Essie Jackson
Parks & Recreation
Many of the 65 patients from the Continuum Partial Hospital Program who visited Hermann Park had difficulty because of their disabilities, wrote Toni Benya, the program’s director of nursing.

Without being asked, Essie Jackson came over and helped them, Benya wrote.

“Mr. Jackson was our knight in shining armor,” she wrote. “He has compassion, character, integrity, and humor.”

Gerald McAnulty, Harrold Johnson, Gary Urie
Police
As Hurricane Rita churned toward Houston, a handful of collections and transplants could not be postponed because of medical preparations, wrote Jeffrey Chell, CEO of the National Marrow Donor Program. The donor program was able to coordinate transportation into and out of Houston for all but one courier.

To get the courier from Bush Intercontinental Airport to M.D. Anderson’s transplant center, Chell explored every option he could think of, including contacting a local news channel about using its helicopter. “Unfortunately, no one had any fuel or the ability to assist us,” he wrote.

Then Sgts. Gary Urie and Gerald McAnulty and Officer Harrold Johnson stepped in. Urie and McAnulty coordinated pickup of the lifesaving bone marrow for a waiting patient from the airport. Johnson met the courier at the airport and drove him to the transplant center.

“A great weight was lifted from my staff’s shoulders when it was reported that the courier and the product were safely delivered to the hospital,” Chell wrote. “Each of these officer’s actions brings great credit to themselves and the Houston Police Department.”