I’m still hearing about the Neighbourhood Heroes party we had on January 29 but I have to confess that one of the stars of the event wasn’t officially a Neighbourhood Hero so today we are going to fix that.

I mentioned last week that Tippy is only 85 years old but that unfortunately macular degeneration has already robbed her of most of her eyesight. She’s also quite hard of hearing. In fact her eyesight and her hearing are so bad, she thinks she’s twenty-five and at times acts fifteen.

Any truly good dictionary would have Tippy’s picture in it many times over. Her picture would be beside words like “enthusiasm”, “joy”, “fun”, “friend”, “courageous”, “determined”, friendly”, “inspiring”, “motivating”, “optimistic”, “passionate”, “patient”, “playful” … no make that “EXTREMELY PLAYFUL”, “positive”, “resilient”, “smile (huge!)” and “laugh (infectious)”.

I’ve come up with this list of descriptors without even trying and I’m confident that I’m absolutely accurate with each word I have chosen; all that and I’ve only met Tippy twice … and very briefly both times. Give me half a day with her and I bet I could add another fifty to that list.

This woman’s amazing energy washes over you from the second she says hello. Sometime over the next year or so, I’ll do a complete column on this wonderful woman. I’m putting that off because it will give me an excuse to hang out with her a whole bunch over the next year – Call it research.

Now before I get back to my commitment to focus mainly on teenage Neighbourhood Heroes for the next several months, I have a few leftover notes from the Neighbourhood Heroes Party I would like to add here.

Laura Harrison and several of her Senior Leadership students from Dover Bay had a great time meeting our Neighbourhood Heroes. Laura’s students have been involved with our Hidden Heroes WebQuest program we’ll be publishing several of their stories soon.

I’m sure you’ll also be reading stories from Paul Grey’s Grade 5 class at Coal Tyee. Paul and his students drew a lot of attention at the party.

I was also really pleased to see Karen Clevette, one of our very early Neighbourhood Heroes and Kristi Dobson, one of our major supporters. Karen has been actively involved behind the scenes with our Neighbourhood Heroes Project Society and Kristi drove all the way from Port Alberni in spite of the bad weather. Kristi is the person who posts each and every column on our web site at www.nhero.org.

Constance Hansey and her daughter, Donna, had a great time too. Do you remember Constance? She had an ongoing literacy problem but never admitted it to herself or others until she realized that her daughter had a similar problem. That’s when she chose to face literacy head on and work side by side with her daughter.

Recently Constance was accepted into the ABE English Program at Malaspina U-C and I’ve heard a rumor that she will soon be taking math as well. Congratulations Constance. You definitely are a Neighbourhood Hero and a great role model for your daughter and thousands of others.

Vanessa Dubord and her daughter, Tanisha, had a great time too. You may remember Tanisha as Santa’s elf and Vanessa as a young woman who taught Santa a valuable lesson about the dangers of prejudgment.

Vanessa’s second daughter, Brook, was born with a rare chromosome disease and she also has recently been diagnosed with autism. At the party Vanessa took me aside and motioned that she and her husband would love to find a Golden Retriever for the family, especially for Brook.

If you know of someone looking for a good family for a Golden Retriever, please let me know.