Do You Know A "Hero"

One of the goals and most enjoyable parts of the class and the site is to try and point out the amazingly inspiring things that other people of all ages are doing to help others. Early on in the class we met Talia Leman, a teenager, who founded her own organization called RandomKid to help other kids help others. Talia is a great example of a hero. People like Talia or the creators of organizations like Cradles to Crayons that give out donated items to families in need or the founders of Citizen Schools are examples of everyday "heroes" that are doing wonderful things to help others in need. A "hero" could be a teacher or principal that you know that over and over again has done extraordinary things for you and other kids while perhaps facing large challenges or obstacles.

This section is dedicated to identifying these everyday heroes (just like CNN now does each year). There are hundreds, tens of thousands of these people all over the world and it's incredibly heart warming and inspiring to here what they are doing.
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/

1) Just read an article in the Boston Globe (July 2010) about a 90 year old woman named Grace, who has taken care of (and still does) more than 90 foster children in her life, many of whom have serious disabilities like Cerebral Palsy or Down Syndrome. Thank you Grace.
2) Just met 2 women, Mary Flannery (founder) and Kit Jenkins (partner), who run RAW Art Works, an incredibly wonderful and imaginative non profit organization in Lynn, MA. RAW Art Works is an afterschool program in Lynn, MA for urban youth who are interested and aspiring artists. They have a wonderful headquarters in Lynn which also is their art studio where kids as young as 7 and 8 can go to develop their artistic talents while also getting much needed guidance, mentoring and attention since Lynn is a community where more than 30 gangs exist today to try and recruit young kids into potentially a world of drugs and violence.
http://www.rawart.org/
3) Anne Mahlum, Founder and President, who started Back on My Feet, a non-profit organization that promotes the self-sufficiency of the homeless population by engaging them in running as a means to build confidence, strength and self-esteem. After passing by a homeless shelter every morning on her daily run, Anne started Back on My Feet, which is now in several states including Boston and received national and global recognition as one of the 10 CNN Heroes nominees in 2009.
http://www.backonmyfeet.org/
4) Leigh Anne Touhy. As some of you may have seen in the movie The Blind Side, Ms. Touhy took in and eventually adopted a teenager named Michael Oher because his homelife was extremely challenging as his father was murdered and his mother was a drug addict. Ms. Touhy and her family helped provide Michael with a loving family as well as guidance and assistance in school and on the football field which helped lead him to go to college as well as get drafted to play in the NFL where he currently plays today.
http://www.theblindsidemovie.com/dvd/index.html#/Videos
5) Mackenzie Bearup. A 16year old shows us how "simple" becoming a hero by founding "Sheltering Books" an organization that donates books to abused and homeless kids in 6 states.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2010/04/08/cnnheroes.bearup.profile.cnn