Rescuers radio show

Thinking back, Susan Howe thinks having two sons who went to war played an important role in her resolve to start an Honor Flight Hub in Arizona. She first heard about the Honor Flight program in 2008, and was inspired by the story of the organization dedicated to honoring our nation’s veterans with an all-expenses paid trip to the memorials in Washington, D.C., a trip many of our veterans m...

Brenda Combs’ life is drastically different now compared to what it was like not long ago. After 10 years living on the street with what seemed like a hopeless drug addiction, she went on to earn three college degrees and then to create and run a foundation that helps the homeless. Brenda grew up in a middle-class family, but fell into a bad crowd, began using drugs and dropped out of school...

Colonel Heston Silbert began his career with the Phoenix Police Department as a patrol officer in the South Mountain Precinct, and in the years to come he worked gang and drug investigations, undercover, mentoring at-risk youth and selected to be a member of the Special Assignments Unit (SAU/SWAT). Today, he leads the Arizona Department of Public Safety. Hear how the DPS has weathered the past yea...

Scott Clark retired from the Army National Guard after 27 years of service. He spent part of that time in Afghanistan, where he survived a horrific helicopter crash. Once home and physically healed, his unresolved combat trauma continued to take a toll on his family and his life. It wasn’t until a friend of his from church whose son suffered with PTSD, presented him with a book and asked him...

John M. Perkins was born in 1930, a sharecropper’s son who grew up in New Hebron, Mississippi amidst dire poverty. His mother died of a malnutrition disease when John was only 7 months old. When his older brother was murdered at the hands of a town marshal, he fled to California at age 17, vowing never to return.  However, after his conversion to Christianity in 1957 and three-year...

Nicolee Thompson’s life was full of excitement and promise. She graduated from the University of South Carolina with a bachelor’s in teaching and a masters in liberal arts English. Her love of sports, including volleyball, led her to be a college coach. Then her family was rocked by the loss of her brother Mitchell in a drowning accident. Their response was to form Mitchell Swaback Cha...

Eric Sheldahl grew up on a farm just north of Des Moines, and had a successful career as a real estate developer. He and his wife Mary came to Phoenix planning to stay for a few months to flip houses – never knowing they would fall in love with Arizona. When they learned about an organization called Midwest Food Bank that was ranked in the top 10 out of 7,000 nonprofits, they had to learn mo...

It’s no small task to coordinate and support the work of a corps of nearly 3,000 volunteers in Central in Northern Arizona, whose mission is to “Feed. Clothe. House. Heal.” families across the state. It takes someone with years of experience with large events and even bigger staffs. John Junker has been with The Society of St. Vincent de Paul for eight years. The Phoenix Council...

In the 40 years that he has been a pastor in the Phoenix area, Rick Efrid has seen a lot. But this past year of the pandemic has brought new challenges to churches and the clergy who run them. He now serves as the Director of Church Partnerships for Phoenix Seminary. In that position, Rick works to encourage, network and resource other pastors and ministry leaders.  His conviction is that it...

Mary Jo West is beloved by Phoenicians for many reasons. Known for being the city’s first female prime-time news anchor in 1976, her life in front of the camera and behind the scenes has been one of service ever since. She debuted with Bill Close as co-anchor for then KOOL-TV, Channel 10. She went on to work as an anchor and reporter for the CBS network's pioneer all-night news program, NIGH...

Mario D’Ortenzio is soft-spoken with an easy smile. He began his career as a football coach at Morningside College, but found his great joy was leading kids to Christ through the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.  He soon joined the FCA Staff full time in 2000 and later became vice president of the Breakthrough Ministry. Then came an incident that rocked him to his core, and ultimately...

Josiah Friedman has always been passionate about the unborn, but it was when his mom told him a story about an early pregnancy she had that he realized the greatest impact could come from working to change the culture. He is the CEO and founder of Voices for the Voiceless, a nonprofit movement advocating for a world where every preborn life is valued and no one faces unplanned pregnancy alone. He...

From his early days as a classical concert pianist to capturing the hearts of millions of American Idol viewers with his engaging presence and vocal prowess, Scott MacIntyre has never let challenges keep him from achieving his dreams. Blind from birth and a two-time kidney transplant recipient, Scott knows what it means to persevere despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles. He was first diagnose...

Kristen Polin has a passion for ensuring youth arrive to adulthood healthy and whole.    The CEO of notMYkid (NMK), has 24 years of experience working in nonprofit management and is a respected leader in the prevention and behavioral health sector. Her successful career began at Community Bridges and her transition to notMYkid in 2015 carved out her true heart work and passion for w...

Dr. Alyshia Smith spent the first 20 years of her career working in varied aspects of nursing and management for a large private hospital system. She began her VA career as the Deputy Chief Nurse at the Washington, D.C. VA Medical Center, leading initiatives including implementation of a hospital-wide cardia monitoring system, facilitating the opening of the Emergency Department Overflow Unit and...

Jaime Jorge began playing the violin at the age of five. Born and raised in communist Cuba, he was given many opportunities-including an offer to study in Russia at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Music in Moscow with some of the greatest musicians of our time-if only he and his family would renounce their belief in God. They refused. When Jaime was ten, miraculously, his family was given the oppo...

Pastor Julius Keller knew early on that he was called to make a difference in people’s lives. For 25 years he worked as an attorney to help people through investigating fair housing complaints in six states. Then he received a call to the ministry, where he helped save people’s souls for nearly 20 years. Original air date:  September 17, 2020 Rebroadcast:  December 31, 2020 S...

Lisa Kingry has been an ICU nurse for 8 years, but since COVID-19 she’s been on the front lines in a way she could have never imagined. Come join her as she talks about what the days are like for her and her colleagues, and her assessment of the situation in Arizona. Original broadcast August 19, 2020 Rebroadcast December 24, 2020 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As a business leader, Marianne Gouveia was a successful executive working in aerospace nearly 30 years when she decided to leave corporate America to become an executive coach. Her youngest son Eric struggled with medically prescribed opioids from a high school injury. He had seven surgeries and was left with chronic pain, but eventually his injury became more about addiction than it did about pai...

Terry Hamlin grew up in a Mormon (LDS) family rife with alcoholism and gambling, and at 24 was excommunicated for refusing to follow church doctrine. The family legacy followed him – his middle name, spelled Allin, was pronounced All-in, his gambling father’s inspiration, and Terry became an alcoholic himself. Escaping God and religion, he became director of the local ski patrol, a lea...

Stephanie Siete likes to say her world is drugs, Cubs and dogs. Passionate about all three, she reaches out throughout the community to help families fight the challenges of addiction, and educate children on the dangers of drugs. Stephanie has been with Community Bridges since 2002. She began her work as a Prevention Specialist in Valley schools and soon moved into a role of Community Outreach pr...

Julie Supplee, CEO of the House of Refuge Sunnyslope, talks about how COVID-19 and the dropping economy has impacted their clients. Their goal is to catch people before they become homeless on the street, bringing them to their 11 properties in North Phoenix in programs for men, for women, and for single women with children. Julie shares how their program to love, house and equip has actually grow...

Maria Cristina Fuentes was already used to changing the world after six years in Washington, D.C. where she served President George W. Bush in the U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Department of Justice. She also served in the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, working to help states across the country develop and establish their own faith-based initiatives. Following tha...

Robert DeVries served over 25 years with the Holland Michigan Police Department and in 2003 traveled westward when he took over as the Chief of Police for the Kingman Police Department in 2003. During his tenure he was very active with the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police and the Arizona High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA). He has been very active in drug prevention and awareness t...

Steve Yamamori has seen it happen too many times. People come out of years in the service. People come off a prison term. And suddenly, they’re thrust into a world where their days aren’t as structured, they have to adjust to looking for a job and – in the case of someone from the service – they aren’t “wearing their resume on their chest.” That’s wh...