We have just passed the fifth anniversary of the Neighbourhood Heroes column, now a collection of 261 columns about more than 300 Neighbourhood Heroes.

As I have said before, once I began focusing on positive role models, Neighbourhood Heroes, I soon found that they surround us all. The problem is that in this society we have been trained to focus on what is wrong with people and things and then to try to fix that instead of seeking out, encouraging, celebrating, and strengthening that which is good.

My hope is that this column will encourage more of us to look for and acknowledge the Neighbourhood Heroes in our lives and also the Neighbourhood Hero within ourselves.

Four years ago this column spun off into the Hidden Heroes Project in schools, a program that encourages students first, to notice and acknowledge role models in their family, community, and school, and then to notice their own Hidden Hero-like qualities and strengths and put them into action doing something positive for themselves and others.

That led to the formation of the Neighbourhood Heroes Project Society to support our efforts in schools. I want to give my special thanks to past board members Karen Clevette and Leslie McInneny and our current board, Bill Preston, Bruce Mitchell, Ed Poli, George Colussi, and Ross Fraser.

Without these people I doubt that the school project would still be going. I remember a board meeting two years ago at Volunteer Nanaimo where I announced that I was going to give up because things just didn't seem to be happening. I didn't want to quit -- quitting is not part of my make up -- but I sure was running out of steam. Somehow the board managed to prop me up, fill my tank with gas (It was cheaper then!) and keep me going. Strong support when it was definitely needed.

A year of so ago, I realized that I had taken the Hidden Heroes School Project as far as I could as an amateur and once again thought of winding it down; however, early this past spring, the Ministry of Education's District Review Team noticed a number of teachers using the Hidden Heroes Project and named it a "Promising Practice" that should be further developed. Then, thanks to Mike Munro, School District 68 lent their official support. Led by Donna Klockars and me, a team of enthusiastic teachers will be coming together in the next week or so.

In 2003 I developed my Unleashing the Hero Within workshops which I have done with students of all ages as well as elementary and college teachers and business and church groups. As you read this I will be in Bamfield facilitating three workshops for both students and adults in the community. In two weeks I will be in Vancouver facilitating a workshop for Community School Coordinators from across the province.

In conclusion it's been an exciting five-year journey, but none of this would have happened if it weren't for the late Peter Godfrey. Five years ago he was willing to take a chance on old Toronto radio guy. I will be forever grateful to him for that decision and I promise to do everything I can to see that his gamble continues to pay off.

Most of the people I have written about refuse to see themselves as any kind of "hero", and I fit into that category too. That said I remember a grade 7 student at Uplands Park School asking me if I thought of myself as a Neighbourhood Hero. I wasn't prepared to give him a direct answer then but I am now.

Yes, with the support of my friends and others, I think I am a Neighbourhood Hero, and I bet you have been too. I'm proud of what we have achieved in five years and I'm looking forward with joy and enthusiasm to the next five, ten, fifteen ...