Nancy Gannon
	Dominick Jones-Moriarty.
	Warren Butler
	Barbara Smith
	Summer Tissue
	Jack Sittsamer
	Esther Hoegle

What inspires a 69-year-old woman to spend countless hours sitting beside the quiet deathbed of a stranger? Or moves a 24-year-old woman to stay up into the wee hours of the morning filling out cumbersome U.S. Customs forms and stuffing scores of boxes to send to troops overseas?

Or motivates a stay-at-home mom to help homeless families in the North suburbs while her husband takes the lead looking after the couple's three children?

Compassion? Frustration? Concern?

All of those emotions have come into play for seven local volunteers who will be honored this month with 2006 Jefferson Awards for Public Service. They are being recognized for their remarkable work in thankless tasks that have helped so many in the community and beyond.

The recipients are among 48 Community Champions who were nominated by the public and private sectors. The prestigious program was started in 1972 by the American Institute for Public Service, and locally is administered by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Pittsburgh Foundation.

The Jefferson winners will be honored at 7 p.m. Jan. 25 at an awards ceremony at Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland, where each will receive a medallion and $1,000 from a sponsoring agency for the nonprofit organization of his or her choice.

Here are brief descriptions of the Jefferson Award winners and what they have done for the community. The Post-Gazette will publish individual profiles starting tomorrow in the Magazine section:

Nancy Gannon of Mt. Lebanon has volunteered for 20 years at Family Hospice and Palliative Care, a mission in which she spends her time comforting the dying. The 69-year-old mother of six balances the bustle of everyday life with visits to nursing homes, the hospice or people's homes. Dying babies are the hardest, she acknowledges. So, too, are those who have no family to wait with them. Her profile will appear tomorrow.

Macy's is donating $1,000 to Family Hospice and Palliative Care.

Dominick Jones-Moriarty and Warren Butler are just 21, but they've seen enough young lives destroyed growing up on the North Side to work hard to keep other boys from facing that same fate. As graduates themselves of the Christian-based Allegheny Youth Development, they've put in countless hours serving as surrogate brothers, fathers and uncles to the young children in the program. Their profile will appear Wednesday in Magazine.

Duquesne Light Co. is donating $1,000 to Allegheny Youth Development.

If you think homelessness is not a suburban problem, just ask Barbara J. Smith, who has worked tirelessly to combat the day-to-day crisis facing homeless mothers. The 46-year-old Marshall resident has volunteered for 14 years with the Ross-based HEARTH -- Homelessness Ends with Advocacy, Resources, Training and Housing -- focusing recent efforts on sharpening its mission and bolstering fund-raising efforts. Her profile will appear Friday.

WOMEN of Southwestern Pennsylvania is donating $1,000 to HEARTH.

Others have always come first for Summer Tissue, a 24-year-old Bethel Park woman who founded Military Connections a couple of years ago. After her younger brother enlisted in the Marines, she was scurrying around collecting supplies he'd need for his deployment overseas. Then she heard about other troops who needed supplies, too, so she began her organization, which is starting to take off nationally. Her profile will appear next Monday.

William J. Green & Associates is donating $1,000 to Military Connections.

Few young people today can imagine what it would be like to be the only person in their family to survive the atrocities of the Holocaust. As a volunteer for the Holocaust Center of the United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh, Jack Sittsamer, 82, of Squirrel Hill, has shared with more than 100,000 local school students, teachers and others his painful account of the horrors he endured as a youth. His profile will appear Jan. 9.

The PNC Foundation is donating $1,000 to the Holocaust Center of the United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh.

Esther Hoegle started volunteering at the Southwest Food Pantry 24 years ago in what she thought would fill a temporary need to help families through the region's industrial decline. But demand has never slowed down. In fact, as manager of the pantry run out of Guardian Angel Church in the West End, she's serving more people -- half of whom are children -- than ever. Her profile will appear Jan. 10.

Dewey & Kaye is donating $1,000 to the Southwest Food Pantry.

The 7 p.m. Jefferson Awards ceremony at the Carnegie Music Hall on Jan. 25 is free and open to the public. A reception preceding the ceremony at 5:30 is by invitation only. You can read more about the national Jefferson Awards program at www.Jeffersonawards.org.