Our History:

Bill Robinson, a semi-retired broadcaster, newspaper columnist/TV host, is the founder and Executive Director of the Hidden Heroes Education Society.  Bill planted the seed of the basic Hidden Heroes concept in 1975 when he met Dr. Hans Selye, the man who first began to study stress in human beings.  After a long conversation about what we would now call “Hidden Heroes” topics, Dr. Selye encouraged Bill to talk more on his CKFM Toronto radio show about his passion for inspiring ordinary people to take positive action in their lives … one small step at a time.  “It’s not the one in a million “heroes” that make the biggest difference in this world,” Bill kept saying, “it’s the millions of Hidden Heroes, ordinary people who consistently do small positive things that make a difference in their own lives and the lives of people around them.”

Soon after that conversation Bill played a song called “Loneliness Can Really Get You Down” by Gary and Dave.  He never would have done this on his own, but encouraged by his conversation with Dr. Selye, he came off the back of the song and said, “If you are feeling lonely and depressed and all you do is sit around doing nothing but listening to the radio, I’ll guarantee you that at midnight tonight you’re going to feel REALLY lonely and REALLY depressed.  However, if you get out the door and go for a walk, call a friend, go shopping, do something, no guarantees but your chances of feeling better at midnight will go way up.”

Almost immediately a depressed sounding man called to say he just wanted Bill to know that he had heard what he said and he was going for a walk.  He went on to say he had lost his job three months before, hadn’t been able to pay his rent and his landlord was threatening to evict him; he also had had very little to eat in  the past several days, but he was going for a walk.

A few days later the listener called back to report “a series of minor miracles.” During his walk he had met a man outside the Royal York who was attending a convention.  The man took him into the hotel and into a room where “one wall was lined with tables full of food.”

After eating his fill, he was given a doggy bag that fed him for several days, and soon after met another man who connected him with a friend who lived in Toronto.  That friend ended up getting him a job interview; he got the job and with the job he was able to borrow money, buy food and pay some of his rent.  He was just calling to say “thank you”.

Those two words had a dramatic impact on Bill’s life. Two days after that call he had his first and only life mission statement: “To inspire those I reach to look for and find the best in themselves and each other and to put their positive ideas into action."

The Hidden Heroes concept grew stronger when Bill moved down the street to do a show called The Robinson Connection on CKEY (now the FAN 590) and then continued to grow in the late 1990s when, semi-retired; he launched a Hidden Heroes newspaper column in the Mid Vancouver Island Region and later an Island-wide television feature. In 2001 the Our Hidden Heroes program was launched.

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