On The Town:

Several of our fire-fighting heroes who are still fighting fires in the Angeles National Forest were recognized at the Community Awards Program of the Character and Ethics Project on Thursday.

Representatives from the Glendale and Los Angeles County fire departments, the Glendale Police Department and the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department/Crescenta Valley Station were honored by the project, and a standing-room-only audience packed into the board room of the Glendale Unified School District office.

Also honored were the Kiwanis Club of Glendale, the Assistance League of Glendale, the Once Upon a Time Bookstore and several other individuals for service as models of outstanding character and ethical behavior.

Dawn Lindsay, interim president/superintendent of Glendale Community College, was the project’s first keynote speaker in its many quarterly award programs. Presiding at the ceremony were district Supt. Michael Escalante, project President Donald Empey, board members Kathy Fundukian-Thorossian and Louis Sadd.

The youngest of the awardees was 18-year-old Stephanie Osipov, June graduate of Clark Magnet High School.

This teenage lifesaver was the only one to come to the rescue of her next-door, Glendale neighbor who had been shot in the face, allegedly by her husband in a domestic dispute, earlier this summer.

Osipov, who had just received her Emergency Responder certificate, was on her way to graduation ceremonies at the Castaic Lake Rookie Academy when she heard a gunshot.

She wound up using the ruffles on her graduation dress to apply pressure to her neighbor’s wound in order to stem the profuse bleeding, all the while talking to the victim to help her remain conscious.

Rescue professionals arrived on the scene about seven minutes later and took over. Osipov, who still made the graduation, is also a Glendale YMCA lifeguard and a student at Glendale Community College. Mother Sedik Osipov and grandmother Asia Davodyan were front and center at the awards program to applaud Stephanie.

The next Character and Ethics Project Awards Program is scheduled for December.