A fireworks innovator, a police official and a former football coach are in the spotlight for their services to the State College community.

In recognition of their achievements in 2000, the Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County will hold its annual awards dinner at 6 p.m. March 1 at the Penn Stater Conference Center.

This year's finalists for the Community Service Award are Dan Barker, founder of The Great American Fourth of July Fireworks Festival; Jerry Sandusky, founder of The Second Mile; and Tom King, State College borough police chief. Past winners, volunteers and board members selected these finalists.

The Chamber of Business and Industry has served as a countywide organization since the 1920s, and the awards dinner is in its 10th year of honoring outstanding people and companies, said Vice President Alice Clark.

"The purpose of the awards is to spotlight (the finalists) so people know there is an individual or group out there who deserves applause," Clark said.

Some of the categories that will be featured at the awards are Community Service, Entrepreneur of the Year, Small Business of the Year and a new award, Outstanding Technology Company of the Year.

Previous winners of the Community Service Award include Keno Beezer, volunteer for the YMCA in Phillipsburg and the entire office of the Centre County United Way.

Dan Barker

The brainchild of a volunteer fireman revived the region's national patriotism and put State College on the map Fourth-of-July style.

State College's Fourth of July celebration languished for over a decade since the Alpha Fire Co. voted to no longer sponsor the celebration because of the amount of work involved. Most families would plan their activities out of town, Barker said.

Barker felt he could awaken the community's spirit. As a volunteer firefighter for the Alpha Fire Co., he took over the project with the goal of making it a family-oriented event celebrating the nation's birth.

In an effort to perk up the event, Barker chose to play patriotic music over his radio station, WZWW-FM — the Small Business of the Year Award winner 15 years ago, which he sold earlier this year — while the fireworks were being displayed. In the first year, after noticing how the fireworks were out of sync with the music, the Penn State graduate invented a system to carefully choreograph the display.

It was "wildly successful," he said.

"[I] invented something so good people started staying in State College," Barker said about his innovation that has made The Great American Fourth of July Celebration an international event. Recognized as the largest single event occurring in central Pennsylvania, it is cited among the top 10 fireworks displays in the United States by The Wall Street Journal and the Discovery Channel.

He is expecting 200,000 people this Fourth of July. His efforts for the computerized system that coordinates music and fireworks, something not possible 10 years ago, has won him attention from the fireworks community.

In 1992 he formed Pyrotechnics Management Inc. with his son Darin Barker, an accountant, to distribute his hardware and software. Places such as Australia, Europe, Disney World, New York and Washington, D.C. have used his technology. Along with his wife of 34 years, Kay, Dan Barker feels working with his family is a very satisfying experience in which everyone has a defined role.

"We kind of do things informally around here," Kay Barker said.

The $250,000 display involves hundreds of volunteers working 12 to 14-hour shifts two weeks prior to the event "while other people are not even thinking of the Fourth of July," Dan Barker said. About 8,000 individual fireworks devices were used in the 2000 display alone.

"There is nothing to see until July, then it's unbelievable," he said.

Tom King

Police Chief Tom King recalls his time as a detective working with a student rape victim during a 1986 case as one of the most rewarding moments in his career.

He was able to make an arrest before the rapist, who was not a local resident and in State College for the weekend, left town. He remembers giving the victim the help she needed while seeing her through every step of the court process. The rapist was sentenced to 10 years in prison, King said.

Fifteen years later, the woman is doing well. She keeps in touch with King by writing letters and gave him a gift for his baby son.

"It is easy to remember the people you arrest, but it is equally important to remember the victims," King said. "You are here to help someone else."

While majoring in criminology at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, King never deviated from his ambition to perform the police investigations he had been dreaming about since seventh grade. He began to live his dream in 1981, when he started in law enforcement.

"I didn't look forward to days off," he said.

Twelve years later, never bored in a job working close to the public, King found himself the youngest of five applying for the position of police chief after former Chief Elwood Williams announced his retirement. King developed an interest in leadership and wanted to have a bigger influence with a higher rank.

"As chief, I still enjoy going out with officers. You need to be out there to feel what officers are feeling," King said. "Policing is different than 20 years ago."

A quarter of his 60-hour week, King said, he spends either replying to e-mails and phone calls from citizens or actively involved with community groups and leaders about issues that the police can impact. King knew he would be dealing with the public — good and bad — when he took on the job, and he strives for positive interactions with the community.

For example, when officers were constantly coming in contact with kids illegally skating downtown, the chief saw the need to create a legitimate facility for the youths. Now part of the Centre Community Skate Park project, King is helping to develop a skate park in the community.

King looks at issues dangerous to young people and seeks to reduce risks such as drugs and alcohol through programs like after-school activities.

"It's an extreme honor to be nominated. The community means a lot to me because it has given so much to me," King said. "I do what I do because I love doing it."

Jerry Sandusky

Former Penn State football defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky established a foster home in 1977 and in 1982 founded the Second Mile, a non-profit organization that gives a helping hand to abused and neglected children.

Free from his coaching duties at the university, Sandusky now focuses his efforts on the nine community-based programs at the Second Mile, and also the fund-raising for these programs. Making appearances at golf tournaments, parades and haunted house adventures are some of the ways Sandusky brings money into the organization.

Today, the Second Mile is serving more than 100,000 children.

Sandusky was out of town this week and could not be reached for comment.

Apart from the contribution Sandusky has made to Penn State football, his efforts in the community also have earned him appreciation. He has been awarded the YMCA's Service-To-Youth Award, Penn State's Barash Human Services Award and the Human Rights Award from the Washington, Pa. branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

This year Sandusky was chosen as grand marshal for the university's Homecoming parade. His book, Touched, discusses both his experiences with the Second Mile and his years as a Penn State football coach. Just recently retired, the former coach makes time for Second Mile kids and his six adopted children, Sandusky said in earlier interviews.