Stand among heroes

Representing the Kiwanis International Foundation and Conway Kiwanis club respectively, Elmer Austermann (left) and Gene Bartley (right) honor heroes Bert Alexander and Jack Logan with a presentation to their wives, Karen Alexander and Wanda Logan.

Every year, Kiwanis International convention attendees stand in the company of heroes during the presentation of a Kiwanis International Foundation Robert P. Connelly Medal for Heroism. This year, convention attendees will join Karen Alexander and Wanda Logan in posthumous recognition of their husbands’ sacrificial acts to save two other men.

Bert Alexander and Jack Logan were heroes long before April 3, 2006. Prior to that day, they had left their homes and careers in Conway, Arkansas, on a church mission trip to deliver spiritual, dental, and medical assistance to families in Central America. But that day, following a boating accident on Lake Nicaragua, they released their hold on a sinking, makeshift life raft. Their two companions on the raft were rescued later.