2016’s Freedom Awards honorees survived Iranian prison, refugee camps and saved lives
Antonin Scalia
Anna Tang
Tyler Beddoes
A U.S. Supreme Court justice, a former U.S. Marine who was held in an Iranian prison for more than four years, a woman who escaped Communist Vietnam as a child and a police officer who saved a baby — these are the people being honored this year with Freedom Awards.
“It’s been really a heartwarming event,” said Beth Black, who serves on the Freedom Awards Gala committee. “It brings people together to learn about people they didn’t know about who are heroes. Some of them are famous, but sometimes we’re honoring a person who may be part of the regular population and then you learn there are heroes everywhere.”
During the year, the committee members watch for news stories about people who may be good candidates for a Freedom Award, either locally, nationally or sometimes internationally, she said. Two of this year’s recipients live in Utah — Anna Tang and Tyler Beddoes.
The general guideline for nominees is this: “The Freedom Award is presented annually to individuals who have demonstrated a unique contribution to the cause of the freedoms guaranteed in the United States Constitution and the traditional American values of Family, Freedom, God, and Country.”
Antonin Scalia
Born in Trenton, N.J., on March 11, 1936, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died on Feb. 13, 2016. His son Eugene will attend and accept the award for his father.
Scalia attended Georgetown University and Harvard Law School. He worked in private practice and was a law professor at the University of Virginia, University of Chicago, and a visiting law professor at Georgetown and Stanford universities, according to his Supreme Court biography. He also worked for the federal government. He was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1982. He was nominated by Pres. Ronald Reagan to the Supreme Court in 1986.
Scalia and his wife Maureen have nine children.
Anna Tang
Anna Tang’s family attempted to escape from Communist Vietnam when she was 6 years old. It took them three tries before they succeeded by buying passage on a boat headed to Thailand. There, their few belongings were confiscated and they ended up in a Thai refugee camp. They stayed there for six months, then spent the next two years in refugee camps in Indonesia and Singapore before getting a sponsor and being able to come to the United States.
Her daughter Brianna, a first-grader, entered the Freedom Festival Essay contest this year with a story titled “My Mom’s Escape.”
Amir Hekmati
Born in Arizona and raised in Michigan, Amir Hekmati, a former U.S. Marine, went to Iran to visit his dying grandmother in August 2011. A few weeks into the visit, Iranian officials arrested him and accused him of spying for the U.S.
He was sentenced to death in 2012, then, after a retrial in 2014, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. During more than four years in an Iranian prison, he says he spent long periods in solitary confinement and was subjected to psychological and physical punishment. He credits his military training — he was in the Marine Corps from August 2001 to August 2005 — with helping him survive.
U.S. and Iranian officials spent 14 months negotiating over the release of Hekmati and four other Americans, who were let go in exchange for Washington commuting the sentences of one Iranian and six people with dual U.S.-Iranian citizenship. They were released on Jan. 16, 2016.
Tyler Beddoes
In March 2015, Spanish Fork police officer Tyler Beddoes responded to a call about a car found by a fisherman in the Spanish Fork River. He jumped into the river with two other officers, one of whom had a video camera, and they all heard a female voice. One of the officers responded to the voice and said they’re coming. When they got to the car, they found 18-month-old Lily Groesbeck — alive and strapped into her car seat, and her mother Jennifer, who died in the accident about 14 hours earlier.
He was recognized by the mayor of Spanish Fork and the U.S. Congress for his part in Lily’s rescue. Beddoes co-wrote a book about the experience, “Proof of Angels.”
He lives in Elk Ridge with his wife two children.
Tickets to the gala are $50 each, and are available by phone at (801) 818-1776 or in person at the festival office, 4626 N. 300 West, Suite 300, Provo. Tickets are not available online and won’t be available at the door. The deadline for ordering tickets is 5 p.m. June 22.