Sunday, January 03, 2010, 8:22 PM
Atlanta, Sunday Paper News, In the News, Stop the Presses
By Kevin Moreau

Looking for a hero

Last week, in our annual People of the Year issue, we looked back on those Atlantans who shaped the last 12 months—those who, for better or worse, influenced our lives and dominated our discussions.

Each year, that list is topped by our Person of the Year, an honor that has, in the past, been bestowed upon such notables as Michael Vick ( as a newsmaker, not as someone worth emulating), the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (who paved the way for the election of Barack Obama) and even Zoo Atlanta’s own Mei Lan.

In our conversations to determine who would snag People of the Year honors for 2009, a theme started to emerge: more than half of our list was made up of people who put something on the line, risked their careers or otherwise endured great hardship, including Atlanta’s frustrated crime victims, our police officers, the wife of disgraced House Speaker Glenn Richardson and “Real Housewives of Atlanta” freshman Kandi Burruss, who found herself dealing with the death of her former fiancé in the midst of her newfound TV stardom. But you know all that.

With that issue still fresh on our minds, it seems like the perfect time to solicit nominations for our second annual Unsung Hero Awards. We received a lot of great ideas for our inaugural Unsung Heroes edition last year, and I’m confident that this year’s suggestions will be even better.

Our Unsung Heroes differ from SP’s People of the Year in two important ways. First, they’re driven by you, our readers. More significantly, we’re looking for everyday people—not celebrities or politicians—who go out of their way to help others, beyond the parameters of their job description. The high-priced lawyer who runs a food bank in his nonexistent spare time; that cash-strapped waitress in Little Five Points who adopts a pair of disadvantaged siblings at great expense; your overworked neighbor who opens her home to victims of fire or natural disaster.

People, in other words, who go above and beyond to lend a helping hand, not because they’re paid to, but because they want to, or feel compelled to do so.

So tell us, Atlanta: Who are your heroes? E-mail me your nominations by the end of the day on Friday, Feb. 26. We’ll select the best and publish the winners in our March 21 issue.

Until next week, take care.