Among the nationwide winners are Danny Meyer, president of Union Square Hospitality Group in New York City, and Jay Lesoganich, a security shift supervisor at the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

"These awards are the industry's way of showing its appreciation to the people that not only service others each and every day," Heffner said, "but have proven they really care by going above and beyond their duties by saving lives and property and improving society."

Meyer, the winner in the large restaurant category, is an icon of the hospitality industry.  He will be recognized for his generosity for hunger-relief causes such as City Harvest, which collects restaurant leftovers, and Share Our Strength, which fights international poverty and hunger.  Meyer is also spearheading a multi-million dollar restoration of Manhattan's Madison Square Park.

Meyer's New York City restaurant Union Square Cafe has twice garnered The New York Times' coveted three-star rating and has earned Zagat Survey's No. 1 spot as the city's most popular restaurant for the last five years beginning in 1997.  Gramercy Tavern, another of Meyer's restaurants, holds Zagat Survey's No. 2 spot and has also been awarded three stars by The New York Times.  Meyer and his restaurants have earned an unprecedented nine James Beard Awards including Humanitarian of the Year and Outstanding Restaurant of the Year.

In the large hotel category, Las Vegas' Lesoganich is being honored for saving the lives of five different people during his tenure at the Golden Nugget.  

In the small hotel category, Terry Brandes, chief engineer at the Four Points Sheraton Rochester Riverside in New York, is being awarded for his bravery when he rescued an 11-year-old boy who jumped into the Genesee River.  He and two co-workers hooked the boy's arm with a 100-foot electrical cord and pulled him to safety.

The LVIHRS, which is being held June 21 & 22 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, is an annual trade show that showcases thousands of new products and services, and seminars relating to the restaurant and hospitality industry.

The 2001 LVIHRS marks the first event produced under a partnership announced last fall between the Nevada Hotel & Lodging Association and Nevada Restaurant Association and the owners of the 85-year-old New York City-based International Hotel/Motel and Restaurant Show, the AHLA, the Hotel Association of New York City and the New York State Hospitality & Tourism Association.