Who Are Your Heroes?

[Daryn Kagan]

I'm thinking about heroes with today's featured story. A young woman in Washington state says she's not one, even though she did two heroic acts in a single day recently. And community member Harry Tucker posted an inspiring blog about who he thinks are heroes.

Now it's your time to chime in. Who are your heroes?

[Rose Caplan]

Heroes:
Katy Atterbery and Carmen Perez know this all too well through their personal experiences with family and friends. So they took their shared passion and mission and created the Queen of Hearts Foundation. Their goals are to make a difference and empower women regarding their heart health through awareness, education and information.

Payne & Glory foundation for teens. Payne & Glory provides forums for young people to learn positive actions that will improve their lives. They do good work. Chelsealya Payne and Traci Johnson.

[Rose Caplan]

In Memory of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, 1921 - 2009 One Woman’s Vision

Eunice Kennedy Shriver founded the Special Olympics and, on July 20, 1968, the first Special Olympic Games were held at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois.

The Special Olympics was created out of Ms. Shriver’s love and respect for the individual nature of people with intellectual disabilities and her desire to see that they reach their full potential without changing who they inherently are. The bonus, as Ms. Shriver saw it, is that we all change for the better as we allow people with intellectual disabilities grow into all they are meant to be.

In a statement from the Special Olympics on her death, Timothy Shriver says “… it was her unconditional love for the athletes of Special Olympics that so fulfilled her life.”

Her son goes on to say that his mother “…never hoped that people with intellectual disabilities should be somehow changed into something they were not. Rather, she fought throughout her life to ensure that they would be allowed to reach their full potential so that we might in turn be changed by them, forced to recognize our own false assumptions and their inherent gifts.”

To that end, as we learn from the video, the Special Olympics provides individuals with consistent opportunities to realize their potential, develop physical fitness, and establish self confidence thereby enriching both individual lives and communities as a whole.

So it is that Eunice Kennedy Shriver dedicated her life to her “special friends” and through her lifelong tireless efforts created a world stage on which they can inspire us all by improving themselves and improving the world.

Video can be viewed http://feedyourgooddog.com/blog/?p=588

[Rose Caplan]

New hero in my life...Byron Pitts! He not only had the courage to see his dream through to fruition despite what might be considered insurmountable obstacles, but he had the courage to share it with us. His story Step Out on Nothing How Faith and Family Helped Me Conquer Life’s Challenges is an inspiration to anyone who is giving up on their dream because they think they can't.