Denyse McCullough
Most of us know that if we improved our lifestyle, we would feel a lot better, be a lot healthier, and live a lot longer...

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Ruth Malli (L) and Colleen McGuff-Dean (R)
I participated in a four-day Appreciative Enquiry workshop at Malaspina U-C last week. Appreciative Inquiry is based on the assumption that every human being and every human system is good at the core and that when we draw out that good, positive change happens...

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Neighbourhood Heroes
Over the past few months, I've fallen behind in responding to nominations sent in to our web site (www.nhero.org). In order to catch up quickly, here are four short stories of people whose friends or family think of them as Neighbourhood Heroes...

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Bruce McFarland
It's been a year since Nanaimo lost one of it's true Neighbourhood Heroes, a hero to the dozens or more likely hundreds of kids he coached in baseball, hockey, soccer and football over the years...

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Neighbourhood Heroes Meet and Greet Party - Part 2
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...

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Vanessa Dubord
Christmas seems to have snuck up on me this year but last week I was reminded that it was coming, and coming soon. I got a last minute phone call from a friend asking me to play Santa Clause and faster than I could say "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer," I found myself wearing the famous red costume along with knee length black rubber boots and a mouth full of white cotton as I prepared to have my picture taken with business people across the city...

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Joy Hunter
When I started writing this column almost three years ago, my hope was that, as well as everyone enjoying the stories, at least a few readers would learn something from each of the people written about that they could apply to their own lives...

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Traveler's Lodge
When I attended Grace Turley's funeral recently I had the opportunity to spend some time with Marianne Turley, Grace's daughter-in-law. ..

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Allyx Williams
I got an email recently in response to last week's column about family Christmas traditions.
You may remember Brenda Aubin telling us about a tradition her family had when she was a child - Each week her parents would give the kids 50 cents allowance and each of them would drop 10 cents of that into a special "Christmas Box" while their parents added $5. The money was used the next year to prepare a Christmas hamper for a needy family...

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Dale Dawes
Are there people in your past you never really got to know very well but they still had a positive impact on your life? Although she is now a teacher and a mother of two, Trina Wilcox still remembers Dale Dawes, her school bus driver when she was a student at Cedar Junior Secondary. Last week, all these years later, she nominated him as a Neighbourhood Hero...

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Brenda Aubin/Mid Island Unity Church
My dad always said, if you want it to be, life can be more fun than a barrel full of monkeys. It's always fun, he would tell me, to see what happens after you've taken that first small step in the right direction...

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Kathy Reynes
Kathy Reynes is a Neighbourhood Hero for many reasons. One is that she recognizes and acknowledges other ordinary people who are extraordinary role models - We call those people Neighbourhood Heroes...

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Bruce Mitchell
I was walking on the seawall last Sunday and bumped into my friend, Bruce Mitchell, the recently retired principal of Dover Bay high school."I've been meaning to call you," Bruce said, "to tell you about a Neighbourhood Heroes fan I met a while ago..."

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Anonymous Asset Builder
I was going through my old files recently and came across a story that Carolyn Iles had submitted to a province-wide, Asset Building For Youth newsletter. It's well worth retelling...

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Jenny Webb
"She makes a strong, positive difference at Coal Tyee School," Grade 5/6 teacher Paul Grey wrote when he nominated Jenny Webb as today's Neighbourhood Hero...

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Glen Gould and an "Unknown Hero"
Normally, the people we feature in this column are average, everyday Canadians, people whose lives lived and stories told are an inspiration to us all. Today however, I want to acknowledge a celebrity who would also quality as a Neighbourhood Hero as well as an unknown Neighbourhood Hero...

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Linda Brandmeier and Julie Foster
How many times since September 11th have you heard someone say, "Man, are we ever lucky to live on this Island?" Most of us agreed whole-heartedly each time we heard that said. In fact, most of us said the same thing, over and over again with deeply felt emotion...

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White Rapids Summer Swim Club
"How was the meet? How did you do?" Those were the first questions Eric Robinson asked his granddaughter as she walked through the door...

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Alex Korn
When you live on Vancouver Island, summer means visitors, and visitors bring their stories; some may be stories of Neighbourhood Heroes. Alex and Dorry Korn, two of my closest friends from Toronto visited me recently...

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Bob Parker
We've all had really great ideas. Few of us however, stick with those ideas long enough to really think them through. Fewer still do the research, take any necessary training, line up support, find any money needed, and finally turn the idea into reality...

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Asset Builders are Neighbourhood Heroes Too
Two and a half years ago Keith Pattinson began to introduce the Developmental Asset Building Philosophy here in British Columbia. This philosophy is based on a list of 40 positive experiences and characteristics that any one of us can help to provide for young people, simple things that have a tremendous impact on their chances for success in life...

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George Colussi and Keith Pattinson
I heard some great stories recently. The people who told them called them Asset Building Stories. They are also Neighbourhood Heroes stories...

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It's the little things that count...
Neighbourhood Heroes are the kind of people who do small things consistently, small things that, over time, have a big impact. Today we will celebrate three such Neighbourhood Heroes, two young mothers and an older gentleman. First the mothers...

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