Recently Money Magazine placed Port Alberni 123rd on their list of the 123 Worst Cities to Live in Canada. What they didn’t mention is that Port Alberni is a city full of Hidden Heroes.

One of those “heroes” who has been a huge silent help to me and our Hidden Heroes Education Society is Kristi Dobson.

I first met Kristi when I was working as the Executive Director of Nanaimo’s Habitat for Humanity in the late 90s. A young student at the time, she was one of our amazing volunteers.

This column was born soon after that. When Karen Addison and her team volunteered to develop and host our first web site, which featured each new column as it is written, I was excited but learning how to actually post the columns was way beyond my technical interests or abilities – Enter Kristi Dobson.

Ever since then, each week as I send in my column, I email a copy to Kristi in Port Alberni and magically it appears on our site. As regular as clock work and as reliably as a Swiss watch, that has happened every week for almost seven years. By the way at this moment Kristi is still trying to catch her breath because she had no idea this -so mightily deserved -- column was coming.

Four or five years ago, Kristi moved from Nanaimo to Port Alberni where she returned to school to study graphic design. When she graduated, she found herself working for the Alberni Valley Times, one of our sister papers.

Three years ago Kristi started working part time for the Canadian Cancer Society in Port Alberni. Her job was to introduce the Relay for Life event to her community and she was unbelievably successful -- I used the word “unbelievably” after some thought. Her success was truly amazing.

Today Kristi is working full time for the Port Alberni Cancer Society organizing the Relay for Life, the Tour de Rock and dear knows what else.

Karen Boden, the Managing Editor of the Alberni Valley Times described Kristi as having “incredible energy, dedication and drive as well as being amazingly compassionate.”

If you Google “Relay for Life Port Alberni 2006 You Tube,” you will see a seven or eight minute video featuring just a few of the committed people Kristi has been able to inspire to support her cause.

Remember as I started this column, I mentioned that Money Magazine placed Port Alberni 123rd on their list of the 123 Worst Cities to Live in Canada? Well this year as she began planning the third annual Relay for Life, a major cancer fundraiser across the country, Kristi set her goal at $123,000; one dollar for each of 123 great reasons to live in Port Alberni and to no one’s surprise, she met that goal and surpassed it.

I have tried to find different ways to let Kristi know how much her support has meant to me over the years and also to those students who turn to the Internet to read stories she has posted for us.

So today I have figuratively climbed to the roof of the Harbour City Star and Oceanside Star and I’m shouting as loudly as I can: Thanks Kristi. You are my valued and much appreciated Hidden Hero.

Do you know any people who, like Kristi, always manage to stay in the background but whose efforts are essential to the success of whatever project they are working on, and without whom success would be tenuous at best? If you do, wouldn’t this be a good time to give them a little pat on the back?

If you let me know who they are, I’ll give them a public pat on the back in this column.