An asphalt-truck driver and a Cranston monument company were honored by Gov. Donald L. Carcieri with the 2008 Rhode Island’s Hope Awards.
Last week’s ceremony, at Rhodes-on-the-Pawtuxet in Cranston, also recalled the fifth anniversary of the fatal fire at The Station nightclub in West Warwick. But the annual ceremony, spawned by the loss of 100 lives due to the fire, emphasizes hope and heroism rather than mourning and tragedy. It is a shift that came around the fire’s second anniversary, according to Sue Stenhouse, deputy director of the Governor’s Office of Community Relations and a member of the awards committee.
“We were really listening to the families,” she recalled. “They said it was going to be really difficult to keep coming back every year to something sad.”
Besides the awards themselves – for Outstanding Responder in a Crisis Situation and Outstanding Support Toward Recovery – the Wednesday-night event included comments by the Rev. Joseph Creedon, chaplain of the R.I. State Police, about how tragedies refine us, they don’t define us.
“This year’s outstanding responder is James O’Connell, who was nominated through his company,” Stenhouse said. The Warwick resident is a driver for The Hudson Cos., a Providence-based asphalt business with facilities in Rhode Island and Connecticut.
He was nominated for his quick action after “a horrific accident in Connecticut this winter. … The accident literally right before his eyes,” Stenhouse said.
Thanks to his training in flammable materials handling, O’Connell was able to quickly assess the situation, she said, and while other motorists were fleeing the scene, he took action and is credited with saving several lives.
O’Connell – a member of a family that has been active for many years in the St. Patrick’s parade in West Warwick – is known for his volunteer work, especially for his efforts to help build new playgrounds at local schools, Stenhouse said. “Jim was really concerned,” she added. “He didn’t want to be defined by this one incident.”
Honored with the 2008 Rhode Island’s Hope Award for Outstanding Support Toward Recovery were Loffredo’s Monumental Décor of Cranston, owner Al Loffredo Sr., and his sons, Al Loffredo Jr. and Jason Loffredo. The stone carvers were nominated by Paula McLaughlin, whose sister was one of the fire victims, Stenhouse said.
The company, at 1469 Cranston St., near St. Ann Cemetery in Cranston, has provided graveside decorations at no charge to more than 20 Station fire families in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, she said.
Other monument companies also were nominated, but the Loffredos “really went above and beyond. They reached out to victims – everything was taken care of.”
Like O’Connell, the Loffredos protested their selection, Stenhouse said. “It’s amazing to me, when people that have done so much feel so unworthy. … Loffredo’s and Jim were absolutely outstanding.”
This year’s winners were chosen by an awards committee that besides Stenhouse included Dr. Joseph F. Amaral, president and CEO of Rhode Island Hospital; Jane A. Hayward, secretary of the R.I. Office of Health and Human Services; Frank McGonagle, a board member of the Phoenix Society, a nonprofit that works with burn survivors; and Kathy Sullivan, a survivor of the 2003 nightclub fire.
Past recipients of the Rhode Island’s Hope Awards include James Paolucci, the owner of Cowesett Inn in West Warwick; Cranston ARC employees Sam Martin, Le’Etta Jones, Johnson Omesefunmi and Melissa Brousseau, for rescuing a motorist from a submerged vehicle; and Friends Way program director Laurie Fitzgerald, for her organization’s ongoing support of the children of those who died in the nightclub fire. •
The ceremony also featured a performance by the Cumberland High School Clef Singers, shown here.
