Everyday Hero Stories

Where did your values come from?

We've all had people in our lives who have made a positive impact on us. A parent or grandparent, a sibling who was there for us, or maybe even just a guy who shines shoes for a living? Whoever they are, tell us their story so they can inspire us even more.

Tell Us Your Story
HARD WORK
PIECE OF BLUEGRASS For many years, my life revolved around horses. They were my hobby as much as my way of paying the bills. Living in the city, I didn't get to live on a horse farm. My parents didn't have a lot of money. When I turned 9 years old my father surprised me with a mixed breed cattle horse. I made a promise to my...
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CARING
PHOENIX AND TALIA D On October 15, 2003, I received a call from my wife that she was getting ready to have an emergency C-section. She had gone in for a normal prenatal check up and was told that the baby was breech and they needed to take him. I immediately left work facing a 2 1/2 hour drive in which time I had no idea how mother...
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OPTIMISM
SCOUT SPIRIT It was a cold Boy Scout Klondike weekend. The night before had been twenty degrees below zero and a lot of the troops didn't come out. Needless to say the ones that did come were moving around a lot to keep warm. There was a series of games and competitions to participate in including things like First Aid,...
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AMBITION
KELLI My sister, Kelli, is my hero. She has overcome a lifetime of hardships including physical and emotional abuse, substance abuse and poverty. Today, she is a clean and sober single mother of five daughters. Though she works full time and takes phenomenal care of her 5 children, she still finds time on the holidays...
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COMMON GROUND
I HEART PEOPLE So, I'm pretty sure we're all familiar with public transportation, right? You get a cornucopia of diversity in an enclosed space for a short amount of time, yet long enough to form judgments about complete strangers. I was on the public transportation in D.C., and I was living my own cornucopia of diversity. I...
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FRIENDSHIP
MY DAD My hero is my dad. He passed away two years ago and yet it still feels just like yesterday he was here. He died of cirrhosis of the liver. It was hard watching him slowly fading away. He'd been to the hospital before but always came out. Until this day I had always thought of this as a dream. A dream, I'd soon...
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LISTENING
YOU CAN, TOO! I am 68 years old. I have COPD (emphysema) and have been on oxygen for about six years. I have gone about my regular activities'I belong to my local Woman's Club, a book club and two respiratory support groups. I am out and about, depending on the weather here in Southern California, two or three times a week....
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APPRECIATION
TAKING CARE OF BABY I met a fairly young mother who had two young children on the train ride back to the Bay Area from Portland. She recently lost her husband who was involved in a fishing boat accident when they were living in Alaska. They were on the train to San Diego to stay with family as the first stage of starting a new...
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CHARACTER
FRED M In Uganda, AIDS orphans and abused children take the streets of cities, hoping to find enough to eat by begging, stealing and searching the garbage dumps. Fred is a college student in Jinja who likes to play tennis and listen to music...and to save street kids in his spare time. Once a month, he gives over 100...
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CARING
ERICA A My hero is my older sister Erica. She has always been there for me when I needed someone to talk to, and she is like a second mother to me. If there is ever something that I can't tell my Mom, I go to Erica because I know that I can trust and confide in her with my secrets and she'll always give me the right...
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CARING
JULIE O My Aunt Julie has been my hero for as long as I can remember. She has raised me up to respect others and myself and take on full responsibility for my own life. Not only did she raise me, but she has also raised my father and three other children. Although we were not her own, she gave up her leisurely time, to...
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APPRECIATION
ROBERTA S This is a story about my Aunt Bobby. She was the most loved person I ever knew. As a boy I remember visiting her and her husband Bob, son Randy and daughter Patty at their Gross Pointe home in Michigan. I arrived one summer after school had let out. I found a family filled with love and a home that ran smoothly...
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RIGHT CHOICES
MR. AND MRS. POSITIVE I have two really good friends, Nancy and Richard. They both believe in the power of positive thinking. However, though their personalities are similar, they are totally different in other areas of their lives. The biggest differences are their childhood, career choices, and lifestyles. The first difference is...
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COURAGE
IMPOSSIBLE THINGS During a particularly bad moment I emailed my old high school religion teacher that I was in the middle of a crisis of faith and didn't really know how to carry on. His response was simple but so profound, "to believe in the face of it all - that is faith. Impossible things happen every day." I am a native of...
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HELPING OTHERS
REMOVING SNOW I know it doesn't seem like much, but yesterday my neighbor (who is now on crutches) was trying to clean the snow off his truck with a broom. I went across the street and helped him. He just had a hip replacement, apparently. He was very grateful. His wife, who now has Parkinson's, needed help with her groceries...
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BELIEVE IN YOURSELF
ENCOURAGEMENT AND BELIEVING I just watched Track Coach and it brought back memories of when I was in grade 6. I joined the cross country running club. I hated running but joined because my friends were in the club. I worked hard and no matter how hard I trained, I constantly came in dead last. After yet another meet where I came in last I...
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CARING
MARGINA S My mother is my hero as well as my best friend. She cheers me on when no one else is there. She also encourages me when I feel like giving up. She is a fabulous person and she always helps me learn new things. Shes my best friend because she doesn't stay inside and watch TV, instead she comes outside and plays...
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INSPIRATION
HELPING SOUTH FLORIDA LoveBags Helping South Florida's homeless... one bag at a time. Recently, while sitting at a stoplight with friends in my car, a homeless man staggered toward my window. In a nervous effort I let out a laugh to clear the air in the car. It didn't help. The man was still there, unintentionally taunting us...
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CARING
JOSEPH S My husband Joseph Shipp Jr. was my hero. He died at age 32 in a hit and run accident that left me on my own with our three wonderful boys. He was always there for me and the boys. He cared for others by helping them get their cars fixed, so they would have transportation. He was a man of great faith an shared...
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GENEROSITY
ERIC S Last Friday the most amazing thing happened to me. For several months I had been training with my sister to run a half-marathon. It was my sister's first half marathon and both of us decided to use the race as an opportunity to raise money for causes we cared about. My sister raised money for cancer research and...
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GENEROSITY
GUM Today I was out shopping with my mom at a store. While a lady in front of us in the checkout line, I spied a kid that looked 2 years younger than me. He was trying to get some gum but probably was out of money, because he just stared at the dispenser with sad eyes. When my mom and I were walking out the store,...
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CARING
CRYSTAL R Throughout the course of the two years in high school which I have completed, there have been numerous occasions in which I was depressed because I felt like I had nobody who cared for me. During these times I have turned to three individuals for guidance and comfort. Their names are Crystal, Cherisse, and...
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LEADERSHIP
A DRUM MAJOR OF TRUE INSPIRATION In any group or team, there are always leaders that encourage everyone to keep on persevering during difficult times. In the marching band that I am currently in, we have an assistant drum major named Angela, and she is one of the most inspirational people I have ever met. The summer going into my freshman...
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DEVOTION
BOB B Bob was killed at war in October 1967. Bob was not only my older brother, he was my idol. A friend to many, smart, athletic, active volunteer, good-looking. An ROTC student in college, he responded to his country's call and stood tall and sacrificed for me and all of us just two months before coming home. We...
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CARING
LARRY S Larry is a resident in Greenwich Village and he spends almost all of his day collecting money for various causes and organizations; for example, The Fight Against AIDS. He does all of this despite his mild mental retardation. Larry has raised over $10,000 for local charities over the years. Larry is very...
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LIVE YOUR DREAMS
NEVER LET DREAMS DIE; EXHILARATION FOLLOWS! It was the summer of 1952. I was 10 years old. We moved to a new house, in a new school district. I met a few friends and began to feel quite comfortable in the new neighborhood. Later that summer, just before school was about to start, a friend and I rode our bikes to the schoolyard to get ourselves acquainted...
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HUMILITY
JUST A CHILD TRYING TO PLEASE Sitting at traffic light in a rickshaw, in the polluted air of an Indian city, my eyes fell upon the poor and desolate living on the road side. Inches away from the dirty tires and deafening engines of old motors there were innumerable children scanning the traffic for people who may give charity. A man and...
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CARING
LACY C My fiancée Lacy is my hero. She is determined and confident, no matter what anyone says. She is strong, both emotionally and physically. Lacy is a very persistent individual, and does not let any thing anyone says get her down. She is strong willed and always does what is right. Lacy is an honest to God angel....
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BELIEVE IN YOURSELF
RAMON R Ramon Ramos is a retired National Basketball Association player originally from Puerto Rican. He studied in Puerto Rico at Colegio San Jose and in the United States at Seton Hall where he is now a basketball legend. Ramos began to play in 1985 for the Indios de Canovanas franchise. At first he sat the bench...
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COURTESY
UNDERSTANDING I figured I would share a little story with you about something that happened to me when I was the ripe old age of four (yes, four). I remember it so clearly should be indicative of the impact it had on me at that time. Our loving family dog was nearing the end of his life and was in obvious distress. My father,...
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CARING
PREM R My hero's name is Prem. He has created the Prem Rawat Foundation to show solidarity with people in need and suffering from lack of water, food or natural disasters. At the same time he spreads good values and appreciation for life by traveling around the world to deliver very inspiring talks. That's how I came to...
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LAUGHTER
BUTTERFLIES AND 'BOSQUITOS' Spending the night with my daughter and her family is always quite an experience. The last time I spent the night in a twin bed in the room with my three year old grandson. Since he had a nap earlier in the day, he wasn't the least bit sleepy when his mom decided that it was bedtime for everyone. He climbed on...
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DETERMINATION
BELIEVE Believe... Believe... Believe. That is the one word that I told myself everyday. If I could do this, lose the weight on my own, it would be the biggest accomplishment of my life. You see, my story is worth reading because I did the impossible... or I thought it was impossible. I was over 130lbs overweight, 45...
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