Church Club to Fete Deputy, Firefighter

The St. Paschal Baylon Church Men’s Club in Thousand Oaks will present its second annual firefighter and police officer of the year awards Monday.

The recipients are Deputy Gregory Sharp, a six-year veteran with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, and Oak Park Firefighter Jack Nosco.

Sharp, 31, is assigned to Thousand Oaks and works in the Newbury Park area, where he was instrumental in bringing the “Cops N Jocks” program to local high schools.

The program, which began in Santa Paula in 1993, aims to establish a rapport between police and student athletes. Sharp works with the Newbury Park High School football team and has recruited other deputies to perform similar duties with two area high schools.

He has also received three commendations in the past year, including one for finding a lost 10-year-old Newbury Park boy and another for his investigation of a senior citizen abuse case.

Nosco, 33, is a county firefighter at Station 36 in Oak Park. A 12-year department veteran, he counsels children involved in fires and for the past four years has organized a memorial 50-mile relay race in honor of a fallen firefighter, Capt. Wayne Pulley. The race has raised more than $9,000 for a burn foundation.

In 1993, Nosco received a commendation from the Board of Supervisors for pulling a woman from her burning home moments before it was engulfed in flames.

For banquet information, call 497-1737.