Did you ever meet a human giraffe? If you look around, you'll probably find you know one.

The Giraffe Project defines "Giraffes" as people who are willing to stick their necks out to make a difference. Here are two examples.

Third grader Erica Hansen was watching television one night when she saw an advertisement that showed sick and hungry children. The ad said that through the Save the Children Fund, people could "adopt" a needy boy or girl and save them from this sad fate.

Erica had to help. She leapt to the phone and dialed the toll-free number but then, as the phone began to ring, a shiver of fear ran through her. "They'll never take a 9 year old seriously," she thought so she hung up quickly. A few minutes later, she picked up the phone once again determined to find out how she could make a difference.

When the Save the Children information came in the mail, Erica discussed it with her parents. They thought $20 was a lot of money for a nine-year-old to earn every month, but Erica persisted, so they gave their permission for her to "adopt" a Jordanian girl named Saleemeh.

Most of us would expect a nine-year-old to lose interest in such a project after a few weeks or months, but that's not what happened. Month after month, year after year, Erica always found some way to earn the twenty dollars she needed each month to keep supporting her "adopted" child Saleemeh, a child who was just one year younger than she.

Her list of fund raising projects was endless: she walked her neighbours' dogs, sold home-baked cookies, recycled aluminum cans and glass, and once, she organized a performance of Annie and sold tickets for twenty-five cents each.

Some of Erica's friends couldn't understand why she didn't have enough time to play with them. One even spread a rumour that she was really keeping the money for herself, but nothing could stop her. She knew that her money was being used to bring safe drinking water to Saleemeh's village and to help start new businesses. Petra Mastenbroeck is a little older than Erica. In her mid-teens, she started taking drugs to escape her unhappiness at home -- her mother was an alcoholic and her father abusive. Of course drugs just made her feel worse and the drug users she hung out with didn't help either.

When things became more than she could handle at home, she moved in with another family and soon after that, chose to leave drugs behind.

Then, at a parent / teachers meeting she was surprised to hear people saying there was no drug problem at school. She knew different and decided right there that in spite of her shyness, she would start an organization to help kids with drug problems. She called the group FOCUS (Friends Offering Care, Understanding and Support).

Recognizing that FOCUS members would need training from professional drug counselors if they were going to be effective, Petra organized a number of fund raising events. She and her friends washed cars, baked and sold cakes and cookies and held a dance.

With the training accomplished, FOCUS members ran a telephone hotline for kids in trouble with drugs. Members also gave talks at primary and intermediate schools.

Of course Petra and her FOCUS friends faced a lot of harassment from drug culture supporters. Their lockers were defaced; they received verbal threats and scary telephone messages. A few quit under the pressure, but only a few.

Erica Hansen and Petra Mastenbroek are today's Neighbourhood Heroes. They are also "Giraffes".

For more information about the Giraffe Project go to www.giraffe.org.