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"Our Hidden Heroes: Life Lessons from Those Who Lived Them"
After writing more than 400 of these Hidden Heroes columns featuring
just a few of the thousands of inspiring people in our community, I've
finally started to work on the book I have been thinking and talking
about for the last few years; a collection of stories to be called "Our
Hidden Heroes: Life Lessons from Those Who Lived Them"...
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Tom Dodge
Three years ago, the first year of the Nanaimo Blues Festival, Tom
Dodge volunteered to drive up from Victoria eight Saturdays in a row to
be a festival volunteer. He met so many great people during those eight
weeks and had such a good time, he packed up his life in Victoria and
headed north...
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Cj Heavey
Cj Heavey has lived in New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco
and most recently Edmonton. She has also travelled extensively visiting
cities around the world. Last March, she decided to come to Vancouver
Island on holiday. Her primary goal was to visit Victoria and Tofino...
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One Small Thing
Twenty years ago I came across an idea in one of Anthony Robbins
books that made good sense to me. His suggestion was that we do one
small thing each day for to make things better for ourselves. I'm not
sure if he added one small thing for someone else or if I did. Any way I
started to do both...
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Bill Clay
Diana Johnston, President of the 2007 BC Seniors Games, describes Bill Clay,
Seniors Games Board Member and Instructor in MalaspinaÕs Culinary Arts
Program, as a, "highly organized, action oriented team player who always
delivers as promised."..
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Joanne Pearce
When Joanne Pearce and her husband moved to Nanaimo to retire, she
finally had time for herself. For most of her life, as most mothers
experience these days, her family and employers came first. There was
precious little time for her...
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Tara McNeil
Tara
McNeil was a 'heavy' child, a 'chunky' child. So she was put on her
first diet when she was just ten years old and, like most people on
diets, she would lose weight, reach her goal and then a few weeks or
months later, go back up again-plus a little...
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Lelaina Jules
Lelaina Jules’ journey of a thousand miles
began with one Adult Basic Education course at Malaspina
University-College... <MORE> |
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Christmas Spirit
A few weeks ago, I wrote about Marilyn
Assaf’s 2006 Christmas. She had been going through some particularly
challenging life experiences last fall and it was difficult for her to
keep a smile on her face, but her friend Joy Brown found a way to make
that happen... <MORE> |
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Blake Hunter
If we could look back over our lives with a
focused, “in the moment” awareness that most of us don’t have much or
even most of the time, I think we’d notice that our lives have tended to
offer us a series of bumps or nudges, things that happened either to us
or people around us, things that weren’t planned, things that could have
taken us on all kinds of interesting rides if we had been more flexible
and open to change... <MORE> |
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Katie Marocci
When I last wrote about Katie Marocci, she was
a recent high school graduate who was working at a small Ghanaian school
on a six month volunteer opportunity...
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Rick Rembolt
As time goes by and the working world becomes
more complex, more and more people are thinking about going back to
school to complete their high school diploma and enter trades training,
college or university. <MORE> |
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Delores Gottenberg
More and more people today are focusing on
healthier eating, and a growing number are making an effort to follow
the One Hundred Mile diet. Dolores Gottenberg was one of those people
but she’s taken it a step further, she’s become a SPIN (Small Plot
Intensive) urban farmer -- Check out www.spinfarming.com. <MORE> |
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Paul and Catherine Bezooyen
Scene one: you’re in a rut. Life
has lost its shine. You tell yourself (and anyone else who will listen)
that you’ve got to do something about it and soon... <MORE> |
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Kristi Dobson
Recently Money Magazine placed Port Alberni
123rd on their list of the 123 Worst Cities to Live in Canada. What they
didn’t mention is that Port Alberni is a city full of Hidden Heroes...
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Chris Everett
How many of us have come up with a really good
idea that we’ve thought about, talked about but never got around to
doing? Chris Everett isn’t one of those people... <MORE> |
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Robin & Sylvia Campbell
Hidden Heroes are people who know
that small things can make a big difference. They also know if you want
to change your life for the better, it’s difficult, if not impossible,
to do it in one giant leap. You have to do it one small step at a
time... <MORE> |
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Nanaimo Blues Society
Three years ago, days after they moved
to town, former Hidden Heroes Bill Lucas and his wife, Val, had a dream.
They dreamed of creating a thriving Blues scene in Nanaimo focused
around an annual Summer Blues Festival... <MORE> |
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Shannon Price
As I sat down to write today’s column, I opened
an email that changed my topic for today. The email announced that the
Ontario Association of the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation had
recently presented Shannon Price with the Michelle Breakwell Award for
exemplary support of the CF cause... <MORE> |
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AIDS Orphans in Zimbabwe
Thanks in large part to the
privilege I have of writing this column and to the support of Rotary
Clubs in this area, I have been able to draw attention to the needs of
AIDS orphans at Sihlengeni High School and Pelandaba Primary School in
Zimbabwe... <MORE> |
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Annie Watters
Thanks to the efforts of Annie Waters, the
Nanaimo District Regional Hospital Foundation will soon be receiving a
much larger annual donation from the hospital auxiliary each year. Annie
is the person most responsible for launching the hospital auxiliary’s
North Ridge Village thrift store... <MORE> |
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Bill Hicks and Joelle Rabeau
Some Hidden Heroes aren’t so
hidden. Joelle Rabu and Bill Hicks are two of those people. Both are
well known in the entertainment community on Vancouver Island and beyond
but quietly, without fanfare and without recompense, they do much to
make our community a better place to live... <MORE> |
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VI Raiders
I was at the game in Montreal when Ronnie Stewart
broke the CFL rushing record (287 yards) on October 10, 1960, a record
that still stands today. However, ever since then, little by little, my
interested in football all but disappeared. Then the VI Raiders came to
town... <MORE> |
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Jeff Solomon
Twenty years ago when Jeff Solomon moved from
Montreal to Nanaimo, he began looking for a way to get involved, to make
a difference. It didn’t take long for him to find his answer … ball
hockey... <MORE> |
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Cystic Fibrosis Fun Night
Through snow, sleet or hail -- rain
would be no challenge at all -- the Cystic Fibrosis Fun Night, a family
affair, will always prevail. For the fifth year in a row, I had the
honour of being asked to be the auctioneer at this event where, in spite
of the snow, the vast majority of the close to 300 people who bought
tickets turned up and had a great time raising much needed funds for
Cystic Fibrosis research... <MORE> |
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Give a Dollar, Share a Dream
Hidden Heroes are people who
quietly set about doing the right thing; doing whatever they can to make
a positive difference in the world around them. This week I want to
acknowledge seven individual Hidden Heroes and a corporate one... <MORE> |
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Bruce Erikson
Today I am acknowledging one coach, Bruce
Erikson, who has been coaching soccer in our community for more than 30
years; however, with this column I am also acknowledging approximately
340 local volunteer soccer coaches who work with house, rep and metro
teams … and that doesn’t include team managers and parent helpers;
Hidden Heroes all... <MORE> |
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Heather Porteous
We all have Hidden Heroes in our lives but
most of us have been trained to spend more energy looking for, and
remembering, hidden crooks rather than Hidden Heroes. As a result I tend
to get very few people emailing me to nominate someone they know as a
Hidden Hero... <MORE> |
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Jerry Paquette
Some Hidden Heroes are better known than
others. Jerry Paquette, singer, sound engineer, producer, and manager is
one of the better known ones... <MORE> |
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Alan Lomax
Can one person make a significant difference in
this world? The answer of course is a resounding “yes”. That’s what
Hidden Heroes do all the time and sometimes, through what we call the
ripple affect, that difference can affect an entire country or even the
entire world... <MORE> |
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Stephanie McDowell
Most of us have a number of people in our
lives that would qualify as Hidden Heroes, but it's only occasionally
that someone takes the time to tell me about them, and I can only assume
that they aren't telling anyone else either... <MORE> |
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Nanaimo Foodshare
There are many employees and volunteers in
not-for-profit organizations who qualify as Hidden Heroes. They quietly
do small things that make a big difference and sadly much of what they
do goes unnoticed by most of us. One of these not-for-profits is Nanaimo
Foodshare... <MORE> |
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Mount Benson Legacy Group Campaign
The Mount Benson Legacy
Group campaign to raise $500,000 towards the purchase of 500 acres on
top of Mount Benson is on, and it's hundreds of Hidden Heroes, people
like you and me, that will see this 500 acres turned into public
parkland... <MORE> |
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Phil Ashbee
I first met Phil Ashbee, when he created trophies
for the 1999 Van Isle 360 race. Phil, an artist with Aboriginal
ancestry, is just one more Hidden Hero in our Mid Island arts world...
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Dover Bay Donation
Recently Dover Bay Physical Education
students raised $750 for charity and chose to donate it to the Hidden
Heroes Education Society to support the development of new Hidden Heroes
programs for other students... <MORE> |
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Runners of Compassion Nanaimo
The Nanaimo Chapter of Runners
of Compassion is a group of people who have stopped running for time and
started running for others, specifically for women and children in
need... <MORE> |
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Constance Hansey
Do you remember Constance Hansey? I wrote
about her five years ago. Constance was an exceptional volunteer at
Georgia Avenue Community School. She helped gather and distribute used
computers to families in need, she volunteered in the school computer
lab, and she and her family raised over $2,000 for the school through
paper drives... <MORE> |
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Katie Marocchi
Last year when Katie Marocchi graduated from
Dover Bay Secondary School, she was living a very comfortable life here
in Nanaimo. Today, with $7,500 saved from a summer job plus financial
gifts from her family to cover her costs, she's working as a volunteer
at Nazareth School in Ghana and her lifestyle has changed more than a
little... <MORE> |
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Joanna Dunn and Steve Transfield
Early in 2002 at a Tourism
Nanaimo Board of Directors meeting, Kerry Manton and I had an idea for
an event we wanted to call the Adventure Games... <MORE> |
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Neighbourhood Heroes Celebrates Five Years
We have just
passed the fifth anniversary of the Neighbourhood Heroes column, now a
collection of 261 columns about more than 300 Neighbourhood Heroes... <MORE> |
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Boys and Girls Club of Nanaimo
I define Neighbourhood Heroes
as people who have done small things - things that any ordinary person
could do -- that has made a positive difference either in their own
lives or the lives of people around them...
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Michele Hillier
Michele Hillier has connected a group of
women here in Nanaimo with women in a small village in Sri Lanka who
have been working hard to making a difference in their community -
Neighbourhood Heroes all... <MORE> |
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Neighbourhood Heroes Meet and Greet Party
Wasn’t that a
party, an old time country barn dance kind of party with little kids and
great grandparents enjoying each other and kicking up their heels... <MORE> |
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Lessons I've Learned From Neighbourhood Heros
As another year passes into history, I want to review just a few of the
lessons I have learned from our Neighbourhood Heroes... <MORE> |
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Carol Harding
This is another of our “SURPRISE!” columns. So SURPRISE! Carol Harding,
you are a Neighbourhood Hero... <MORE> |
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Joy Hunter
When I started writing this column almost three years ago, my hope was
that, as well as everyone enjoying the stories, at least a few readers
would learn something from each of the people written about that they
could apply to their own lives... <MORE> |
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Gold Wing Road Riders
Last Saturday I discovered that this column does achieve its primary
goal at least some of the time.
One of our goals is to encourage more readers to notice and
acknowledge the Neighbourhood Heroes around them but our primary goal is
to motive you and others to notice what our Neighbourhood Heroes are
doing and to take similar positive action in your own lives... <MORE> |
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Blake Erickson
Neighbourhood Heroes tend to notice when others need help and they are
usually first in line to see what they can do and, when something needs
doing and it seems like it can't be done, Neighbourhood Heroes often
find a way to make it happen... <MORE> |
| Mike Reeves
It's the people of Nanaimo that makes
this such a special place to live. We really are a city filled
Neighbourhood Heroes... <MORE> |
| Neighbourhood Heros Always Wear A Bike Helmet
I'm
in pain today as I write this column. Every time I move my right
shoulder, it hurts, especially when I reach for the mouse. Each time I
do that it hurts a lot. But apparently I wouldn't be writing at all this
morning (Sunday) if I hadn't been wearing a bicycle helmet early
yesterday afternoon. In fact, I probably wouldn't be alive... <MORE> |
| Steve Littley
Twenty years ago Steve Littley was
a sixteen-year-old high school drop out. Today he is an extraordinary
student who will soon have both a masters' degree in anthropology from
SFU and a law degree from UBC... <MORE> |
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Larry Cooper
Larry Cooper wasn't nominated as today's Neighbourhood Hero because he
has organized a four team mighty mites flag football league for kids 6
to 12, a peewee tackle football team for kids 8 to 11 and a bantam team
for kids 11 to 13 ... but that certainly would have been enough to
qualify him for the honour... <MORE> |
| Stephanie Walker - Walker's Animal Rescue Centre
When Stephanie Walker of Walker's Animal Shelter was six years old, her
family adopted Oscar, a baby crow that had fallen out of a tree. Without
their help, Oscar would have died. Without Oscar, Stephanie's passion
for rescuing animals in need may not have begun...
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| Two "Heroes" Seek Others
Shortly after John
Mulrooney retired as principal of Chase River Primary School, he and his
wife, Mary, a nurse, spent a month working as volunteers on a rural
school project in Zimbabwe - You may recall that I worked on the same
project and wrote five columns from there...
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| Lynne Simpson
The Children's Miracle Network
Telethon has had another record-breaking year and Lynne Simpson is one
of the people that can take credit for that success...
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Lieutenant G. B. Meynell
Today's column will acknowledge over
100 heroes, heroes as defined in the dictionary -- People distinguished
for exceptional courage, fortitude or bold enterprise, especially in
times of war or danger... <MORE> |
| Len Daynes
Hey Len Daynes ... surprise! Ruth Merner, one of your neighbours, has
nominated you as today's Neighbourhood Hero and your wife, Wendy, has
known about it for weeks. She keeps good secrets doesn't she? <MORE> |
| Dale Dawes
Are there people in your past you never really got to know very well but
they still had a positive impact on your life?
Although she is now a teacher and a mother of two, Trina Wilcox still
remembers Dale Dawes, her school bus driver when she was a student at
Cedar Junior Secondary. Last week, all these years later, she nominated
him as a Neighbourhood Hero... <MORE> |
| George Colussi
I've got to know George Colussi
quite well over the past year and a half. He's the Executive Director of
the Boys and Girls Club of Nanaimo. During that time, I've come to
admire him both as individual and as a manager with a unique leadership
style... <MORE> |
| Dan Lay
This column is about one
Neighbourhood Hero who joined forces with a second Neighbourhood Hero.
Then, over the next few weeks, working with their partners, they found
and began to organize 30 more Neighbourhood Heroes ... and they've only
just begun... <MORE> |
| David Foerter
If it's possible to give too much
of yourself to helping others, today's Neighbourhood Hero is guilty.
Dave Foerter is totally, and I mean totally committed to refurbishing
used computers and then giving them away, free of charge, to kids whose
families can't afford one... <MORE> |
| Linda Brandmeier and Julie Foster
How many times
since September 11th have you heard someone say, "Man, are we ever lucky
to live on this Island?" Most of us agreed whole-heartedly each time we
heard that said. In fact, most of us said the same thing, over and over
again with deeply felt emotion... <MORE> |
| Bryun Ashlie
This week, I set out to identify one
of our own firefighters, Ambulance Paramedics or police officers as a
Neighbourhood Hero. I wanted to acknowledge one of our own, and in so
doing, pay homage to the hundreds of New York firefighters, police
officers and others that lost their lives on Tuesday September 11... <MORE> |
| Ian Patterson
"Ian Patterson is the kind of guy
that proves the old saying, 'You can't judge a book by its cover'".
That's what the nomination form from Nanaimo Youth Services said about
him... <MORE> |
| Asset Builders are Neighbourhood Heroes Too
Two
and a half years ago Keith Pattinson began to introduce the
Developmental Asset Building Philosophy here in British Columbia.
This philosophy is based on a list of 40 positive experiences and
characteristics that any one of us can help to provide for young people,
simple things that have a tremendous impact on their chances for success
in life... <MORE> |
| Marshall Cooper
Neighbourhood Heroes are average
people who have done things that other overage people could also do,
things that have made a difference in their own life or the lives of
others.
Sometimes Neighbourhood Heroes are well known "average people"... <MORE> |
| Brenda Newhart
She could have ignored the
pleading eyes she saw in her rear-view mirror - thousands would have -
but she didn't and that's why she is a Neighbourhood Hero... <MORE> |
| Peggy Lake
Don't mess with Peggy Lake. She's a
woman on a mission.
Peggy is committed to empowering people who are living in poverty --
people like her. She is also committed to empowering people who are
living with mental illness -- people like her... <MORE> |
