A suburban pastor, 2 cops, and an athletic trainer recognized as Red Cross Heroes

A suburban pastor, two cops and an athletic trainer are among the 2023 class of heroes being recognized by the American Red Cross of Greater Chicago.

Since 2002, the American Red Cross of Greater Chicago has honored extraordinary individuals who go above and beyond in efforts to build better communities and have had a lasting impact on others.

The 2023 class of Red Cross Heroes includes 17 Illinois residents in 12 community service categories chosen by business and civic leaders. The local heroes will be honored for their commitment to creating safer and stronger communities and helping when disaster strikes.

Here is a look at the suburban residents who will be recognized Thursday during the Chicago Heroes Breakfast:

The Rev. Hernan Cuevas Contreras

On July 1, 2022, the Rev. Hernan Cuevas Contreras started as pastor of Christ Our Hope Parish, a new consolidation of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Highland Park and St. James Catholic Church in Highwood.

The Independence Day parade three days later in Highland Park was planned as the first event for the new parish community to come together. Their parade float had traveled about a half block when Contreras heard what he thought were fireworks.

That changed when he saw a wave of people running toward them and realized what was happening wasn't part of the holiday celebration. He began leading parishioners and onlookers in the area to his church to take shelter.

“We didn't see color, race or religion. We just wanted to help each other,” he said.

It was chaos inside the church.

“People were very nervous and anxious. Some of them were crying,” he said. “I told them to pray. That definitely helped a lot.”

Contreras said he saw people with blood on their shirts and more.

“I saw this dad with his two kids hiding in the bushes. I said, 'Please come into the church,'” he said.

More than 50 people sheltered for more than four hours while the shooter was at large. Those inside ate the Granola bars intended to be passed out during the parade.

“Once we knew they had apprehended the shooter, I said, 'We should do something for the community,'” Contreras said, “The idea was for a healing Mass.”

A series of efforts to comfort and unite the community followed. Among them was a procession for healing that weekend from the church to the site of a growing memorial to the mass shooting's seven victims.

The Red Cross is honoring Contreras as a disaster relief hero and, in its wake, providing resources for the Spanish-speaking members of the community to support healing in Highland Park and Highwood.

Alexander Lopez and Andrew Soderlund

Aurora police officers Alexander Lopez and Andrew Soderlund, of Aurora and Yorkville, respectively, were working patrol shifts the day before Thanksgiving last year when a call came in about a woman and a 9-year-old boy that had fallen through the ice of a retention pond.

The boy was attempting to retrieve his football when he fell through the icy pond. The woman had tried to help the boy.

Both officers raced to the scene, and Lopez went into the water first. Once Lopez reached them about 15 to 20 feet from shore, he started swimming back with both clinging to him.

Soderlund saw Lopez and quickly tied a rope around himself so officers on shore could help pull everyone to safety and then ran into the water to help.

“I knew that they weren't making any progress making it back ... they definitely needed some help,” Soderlund said the day after the rescue.

The rescue was caught on video, and the Aurora Police Department shared a video from the boy's mother expressing her gratitude.

“I thought my son was not going to be able to be here to see Thanksgiving,” the boy's mother said in the video. “I want to thank all the people who rescued him.”

Both officers and those rescued were treated for hypothermia, and everyone fully recovered.

Nicole Collins

Nicole Collins of Sugar Grove first learned CPR at a babysitting class when she was 10 years old.

The 2013 Geneva High School graduate kept her CPR certification through the years. But she never had to use them until last year at a homecoming dance she volunteered to chaperone.

The Sugar Grove woman was supervising students outside the Geneva High School gym when she heard the music stop abruptly. She went inside to check out what was happening and saw a school administrator carrying Bridget Archbold, a Geneva High senior who had collapsed and stopped breathing.

“I checked her pulse, and there was no pulse. I rolled her onto her back from her side, and once she was on her back, I started CPR and did compressions,” Collins said in a story about the rescue.

She asked a school administrator to get the automatic external defibrillator outside the gym, and a police officer at the dance called an ambulance. After two rounds of CPR, Archbold began coughing and regaining consciousness.

“People call me a hero,” said Collins, an athletic trainer at Geneva High. “But in my mind, I was doing my job. If I had not been there, the outcome would have been much different.”