Regis Philbin and a host of city luminaries toasted 10 of the everyday shining stars who brighten the lives of New Yorkers, as the eighth annual New York Post Liberty Medals were awarded yesterday.
Philbin, who has emceed the awards for seven consecutive years, starred again at last night’s ceremony, held at the Midtown headquarters of News Corp., which owns The Post.
“The stories we’re gonna hear tonight are fantastic,” he said. “Regular people doing really extraordinary things, and we take this special opportunity to honor them simply because they inspire the rest of us.”
Winner Israel Soto, a principal who turned once-failing PS/MS 57 in East Harlem into a success story, said he wants to share his Educator medal “with all the dreamers and doers with a heart for giving . . . and with all the extraordinary children in our city whose deep desire to succeed and courage to overcome obstacles along their journey make them the true heroes and heroines.”
Long Island teacher Jennifer Mazzotta-Perretti, who won the Courage medal for donating one of her kidneys to a student, said, “I think when you do things for the right reasons and don’t expect anything in return, really great things can come from it.”
The Post inaugurated the Liberty Medals program in the aftermath of 9/11 to hail the unsung heroes who flocked to help others.
A panel of prominent New Yorkers selected the winners from the finalists in each of eight categories. There were ties in two categories. Two Finest and two Bravest medals were awarded.
The Finest medals were presented by Police Commis sioner Ray Kelly, and the Bravest medals by Sal Cassano, chief of de partment for the FDNY.
Officer Susan Porcello, who took an ailing 84-year-old former Marine under her wing, dedicated her Finest medal to “all branches of the US military, past, present and future. If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be the greatest country in the world. I’m not the hero. They are.”
Deputy Inspector Kim Royster — the other winner of a Finest medal — was honored for orchestrating the NYPD’s gun-buyback amnesty program from July 2008 to April of this year. “It’s an unorthodox way to fight crime,” she said. “But law enforcement partnering with the community made this program successful and got over 4,000 guns off the street.”
Firefighter Michael Czech, who was awarded a Bravest medal for rescuing a Queens mother and her two sons, said he “couldn’t have done it without the support of all the other guys from Engine 285 and Ladder 142. . . . This is the best fire department in the world.”
Paramedic Moses Nelson also won a Bravest medal, for helping a 7-year-old boy who had fallen into an elevator shaft.
“I love my job,” he said. “The best rush in the world is finding what’s wrong and helping some one.”
The Rev. Melony Samuels, who launched the food pantry BedStuy Campaign Against Hunger, hopes her Leadership medal inspires others to “partner with us in the fight against hunger.”
Wellington Chen, the Taiwan-born executive director of the Chinatown Partnership, which is working to revitalize the area, accepted the Freedom medal on behalf of “the waves and waves of immigrants who help make this country great.”
Young Heart medal winner Rachel Guzy, 16, the Queens camp counselor who took control after a school-bus driver had a fatal heart attack, said she’s no hero: “I just did what I thought needed to be done.”
Monsignor William O’Brien, who won the Lifetime Achievement medal for co-founding Daytop Village to help drug abusers turn their lives around, said it was encouraging to receive such support “in the task of rescuing young lives.”
Additional reporting by Laurie Kamens