The American Red Cross Certificate of Merit will be awarded to Dr. William L. Owens III, and Ms. Michelle Cranford on Dec. 17 at 6 p.m. at the Blaney Baptist Church, Elgin, South Carolina.

Mr. Dick Smith, Chairman of the Kershaw County Chapter of the American Red Cross will present the awards.

The Certificate of Merit, which is the highest award given by the American Red Cross, is awarded for saving or sustaining human life.

The award carries the signatures of President Jimmy Carter, and the Chairman of the American Red Cross, Frank Stanton.

Dr. Owens is a dentist who lives and works in Elgin, and Ms. Cranford is his dental assistant, Dr. Owens and Ms. Cranford performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on a man that collapsed outside his office due to cardiac arrest.

The cardiopulmonary resuscitation resuscitation revived the man until emergency medical treatment arrived. The man later died but the C. P. R. training that both Dr. Owens and Ms. Cranford received from the Central South Carolina Chapter of the American Red Cross did receive the man until help arrived.