Some Hidden Heroes are better known than others. Jerry Paquette, singer, sound engineer, producer, and manager is one of the better known ones.

If you are connected to the local music scene in any way, you’re sure to know Jerry and if you have ever raised funds for a worthy cause and you needed help from someone in the music scene, chances are you know Jerry too. He has a big heart, he cares deeply about his community, and he’s always prepared to do what he can to help others. It’s not the money you earn, he learned from his dad, it’s what you do that counts.

I first met Jerry when his daughter, Elise, was in Grade 6. I had been doing a program called “Fishing for Your Future” for Grade 6 and Grade 10 students in School District 68. It was a 60 minute program designed to encourage students to consider a variety of post secondary education opportunities not just university.

I encouraged teachers to invite parents to attend these sessions because all too often, even if their kids were interested in other post secondary opportunities, parents strongly encouraged them to look toward a university degree only.

After doing this program in over 200 classrooms, only one parent ever accepted the invitation to attend. His name was Jerry Paquette.

More recently Jerry proved himself once again to be a Hidden Hero in my eyes. As regular readers of this column know, I have been working since last June with an exceptional group of teenagers who want to raise money for AIDS orphans in Zimbabwe. The kids are planning to organize a major event on October 21 from noon to 5 pm at Harboufront Plaza involving five hours of live music. When I mentioned the event to Jerry, he immediately asked who was doing the sound.

The best offer we had had to that time would have cost us $600 -- $600 will feed and pay school fees for four orphans for a year. So guess who volunteered to do the sound for nothing? Guess who has made it possible for four more orphans to be fed and attend school for a year?

Knowing what I know about Jerry, and knowing how much he has done for this community over the years, I wasn’t surprised when I heard that Alice Frank, a musician and community supporter herself, was organizing a fundraiser so that people who know and respect Jerry could contribute a little to the new expanded recording studio he is planning.

I also wasn’t surprised to hear that when Alice told him she was organizing a fundraiser for a deserving person in town, without even mentioning the name, he immediately volunteered to play and do sound. Then a week or two later when he learned that the fundraiser was for his new studio, he wanted the money to be used to provide a scholarship for a deserving young musician instead. Fortunately no one would buy that, we wanted to do something for him to show our respect and appreciation.

Isn’t it interesting that people who are the biggest “givers”, people who get so much joy from giving, seldom seem able to allow others to experience that same joy when the giving puts them on the receiving end? Jerry finally agreed to let musicians like Gary Fjellgaard, Ken Hamm, Donna Konsorado and Gerry Barnum as well as a couple of hundred other admirerers experience the joy of giving back to him.

The concert raised $3,000 so some small part of Jerry’s his new Raincoast Recording Studio will reflect the community’s appreciation for one of our favourite Hidden Heroes.