9 VALLEY WORKERS HONORED FOR SAVING LIVES.

Byline: Dennis McCarthy 

Odds and ends from around the Valley:

You may not recognize their faces or know their names, but the special people who showed up Wednesday night at the Odyssey Restaurant in Granada Hills are some of the heaviest hitters in the San Fernando Valley.

In one way or another we couldn't get along without them, for they all save lives for a living.

The lives of troubled kids heading down the wrong streets. The lives of stroke and accident victims who think they'll never get back to where they'd once been.

The lives of anyone who someday will need the help of a firefighter, police officer, doctor, physical therapist, educator, community leader or volunteer.

Each of the nine special people honored that night - at the fifth annual Lifesaver's Awards of the Northridge Chamber of Commerce - holds one of those job titles.

There's Dr. Sam Britten at the Center of Achievement for the Physically Disabled at California State University, Northridge, honored for giving accident and stroke victims new hope. And Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. James Faragher, Medal of Valor recipient at Fire Station 70 in Northridge, for leading the North Valley Community Emergency Response Team program.

There's Erica DeSmith, community volunteer, honored for helping police reduce crime in LAPD's Devonshire Division, and Dr. John Alexander and his hyperbaric oxygen chamber at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, for helping save the lives of divers suffering from decompression sickness, or the ``bends,'' as well as the lives of patients with nonhealing wounds.

There's community leader and volunteer David Honda, citied for working tirelessly for countless good causes in the Valley, and Dr. Lawrence Moore, cluster administrator with the Los Angeles Unified School District, for making sure 20,000 high-achieving students in the district get every academic opportunity they deserve and have earned.

There's community philanthropist and artist Susan Rios, for painting her beautiful pictures to help raise funds for so many wonderful, worthwhile organizations, including the Make A Wish Foundation and Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.

And, there's Los Angeles police Officer John Hardin, for working with at-risk kids in the Devonshire Division Jeopardy program, and Christine Meissner Schaeffer, for working tirelessly to make the dream come true for a new neonatal intensive care unit at Northridge Hospital Medical Center.

Our 1999 Lifesavers. We couldn't get along without them.

It's time once again for Rose Engel to pay homage to her late husband, Eddie, with the popular Engel Chamber Music Concert at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, in the David Familian Chapel of Adat Ari El in North Hollywood.

It was a wonderful love story these two shared, making beautiful music together for 67 years. This free concert is Rose's way of keeping Eddie's memory alive.

The concert violist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Glendale Symphony Orchestra played for some of the most sophisticated concert audiences in the world - but his favorite audience was always the kids Rose cared for as a teacher. She was the principal for 35 years at Lokrantz Special Education School in Reseda.

``Some of the most beautiful music Eddie ever played was reserved for those kids,'' Rose said. ``That's the kind of man he was. Everything he did came from the heart.''

And now, every December, from her heart comes this free concert - a gift to the community to remember Eddie Engel and all the beautiful music he brought to people's lives over the years.

For more information on the concert Sunday, call Toni Hertz, [phone].

And finally, American Recovery Services Inc. in Thousand Oaks is gearing up for the second year of its wonderful Christmas Adoption Program, which matches donor families and organizations with needy families in the greater Conejo Valley.

Last year, with the help of Lutheran Services, Catholic Charities and the Salvation Army, more than 70 families were given a special Christmas.

``This year, we expect to help at least 100 needy families, so the need for sponsor families will be greater than ever,'' said Robert Schultz, CAP volunteer chairman.

If anyone would like to sponsor a family this Christmas or donate new toys, clothes or food for CAP volunteers to distribute, call [phone], and ask for a CAP volunteer.

CAPTION(S):

Photo: Honorees of the annual Lifesaver's Awards are, from left: Law rence Moore, John Alexander, Susan Rios, James Faragher, David Honda, Sam Britten, Christine Meissner Schaeffer, John Hardin. Honoree Erica DeSmith is not pictured.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer