A West Virginia University student who aided a WVU bus driver during a medical emergency last December was honored Thursday, April 3, for her quick actions.

Bevin VanGilder, a senior petroleum and natural gas engineering student from Fairmont, accepted a Good Samaritan Award during the Presidents Safety Reception at Erickson Alumni Center. She was among 10 individuals and several building committees recognized by WVU Environmental Health&Safety for their safety efforts the past year.

VanGilders award recognized her rapid response to a Dec. 10, 2002, incident in which she was literally in the wrong place at the wrong time.

She had just parked her car at the Coliseum lot and was boarding a University bus to ride to the Engineering Sciences Building for a final exam when she noticed driver Gerald Towns in distress with chest pains. Despite the likelihood she would miss her exam, she helped Towns to her car, drove him to Ruby Memorial Hospital and waited for an hour while he was evaluated.

When she contacted her professor to explain why she had missed the final, she learned the exam was not until the next day.

“I was amazed,”VanGilder said at the time.”I never get dates and times wrong like that. I guess I was just supposed to be on that bus.”

Fortunately, Towns did not suffer a heart attack, although he underwent treatment for blocked arteries.

A second Good Samaritan Award went to WVU Printing Services employee Donald Miranov for extinguishing a fire in the Communications Building last summer.

The fire started in an exhaust fan in the ceiling above the bindery equipment. It overheated a vent pipe that contained old melting glue, and the burning glue began dripping into the bindery. After asking a fellow employee to call 911 and pull the buildings fire alarm, Miranov grabbed a fire extinguisher and doused the blaze before it could spread.

The following eight WVU students received Safety Achievement awards of Excellence:

• Don McIntyre of Ripley, a former Student Government Association vice president who was instrumental in having speed bumps installed on Maiden Lane at the crosswalk in front of Stalnaker Hall

• Brenda VanMil of Missoula, Mont., a graduate physics student who assumed the duties and responsibilities of maintaining safe practices and chemical hygiene within the Physics Department until a new lab instrumentation specialist could be hired

• Christopher Allen of Germantown, Md.; Jamie Bailey of Clarksburg; Douglas Cipoletti of Charleston; Catherine Goffreda of Spencer; Monica Tanzey of Morgantown; and Brett White of Frametown. As members of the Student Government Association Safety Committee, these six students worked tirelessly to promote awareness of safety issues on campus.

Recipients of Unit/Building Safety Committee awards were Department of Biology; Department of Chemistry; E. Moore Hall; Extension Services; Department of Foreign Languages; Department of Geology and Geography; Health Sciences Center; Knapp Hall; One Waterfront Place; Physical Plant; Department of Physics; Potomac State College; Department of Psychology; Public Safety and Transportation Services; Stewart Hall; and Student Affairs and Auxiliary Facilities.

The University established the safety reception program in 1991 to recognize groups and individuals for their commitment to safety and to honor those who perform actions beyond the call of duty.