The Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center Stranger Safety Program recently received the Honorable Mention Award for Community Service in Modern Healthcare's Spirit of Excellence Award Contest. The award was presented at the Medical Center's annual Hospitality Night, which was attended by more than 100 members of local and civic groups and business professionals.

The Spirit of Excellence Awards, co-sponsored by Sodexho Health Care Services, honors organizations and individuals that go beyond what it expected in serving patients and the community. In addition, the Medical Center received $1,500, which will be used to fund the Stranger Safety Program.

The Stranger Safety Program was created in 2004 in conjunction with the Rose Brucia Educational Foundation. A young member of the Brucia family was tragically abducted in 2004. Carly Brucia, age 11, was abducted and murdered in broad daylight. Matthew Barbis, a cousin of Carly's father, contacted Good Samaritan to see if the hospital was interested in forming a partnership to educated young children about strangers. This program is the first of its kind on Long Island.

The program teaches life skills relating to stranger safety. It provides appropriate educational material for children ages four to twelve, using the Applebee Pond Puppets to promote stranger safety awareness and offers tips to help prevent harmful and dangerous situations facing children. The Good Samaritan Stranger Safety Program involves a process of learning in which participants discover safe and healthy ways of living. This comprehensive program focuses on better preparing children for successful resolution of expected or unexpected life situations. Prevention is a means of helping young children develop personal strengths and values and this program is used as an educational tool to provide a powerful weapon for parents and children.

More than 20,000 children have participated in the program and close to 100 schools/organizations have been visited since the program's inception. For more info. on the Good Samaritan Stranger Safety Program or to schedule a visit to your organization, please call (631) 376-4444.

Shown in the photo, are Sodexho's Ken Centazzo, vice president of sales and Art Mesiti, district manager, with Matthew Barbis, center.