Martha's Vineyard Times
New Year's Resolution: Be an Everyday Hero
By Kelly Burdick
Thursday, December 30, 1999
This New Year's Eve, when the ball is dropping and you're
pondering how to make next year a better one, Marianne Larned wants you to
think about role models.
Ms. Larned, the founder of the Stone Soup Foundation, is
working on a "Celebration of Heroes," and initiative to honor local
heroes, people who make a difference in the lives of others. At the annual town
meetings, members of the Stone Soup Foundation and local schools will present
residents with nomination forms. Residents will be asked to nominate someone
they know who has been a hero to them. "This is to honor the ordinary
folks," Ms. Larned said. "People who aren't above doing the little
things, like donating used clothing, or the Boy Scouts collecting cans."
Once those nominations are in, a selection committee will review the
nominations and choose finalists. Ms. Larned expects to have a celebration of
heroes on July 13 at the Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs.
"We plan to honor
everybody," Ms. Larned said. "We will have different categories where
we honor the story of the Vineyard, where everybody pitches in and helps one
another." Ms. Larned said that she hopes people will look for possible
honorees, as well as work to become everyday heroes themselves.
"Encouraging people to do good deeds for New Year's is not a new
idea," Ms. Larned said. "It would be phenomenal if everyone in the
world would do one good deed to see what we can do together."
The idea of honoring everyday
heroes stems from a project by Deb Hammet, a fifth-grade teacher at the Oak
Bluffs school. Last year, her class worked on the project that honored 10 local
heroes. "The kids did a rigorous selection process and interviewed all of
the people nominated," Ms. Hammet said. "They wrote biographies, and
since we were studying poetry at the time, they wrote limericks about the
heroes."
She said that this year the
celebration of heroes will extend to all of the Island schools. "We'd like
to include more people from different parts of the community," Ms. Hammet
said. "We'd like to have more people in leadership roles be part of the
selection committee. Ms. Hammet and Elizabeth Knox will hold an organizational
meeting on Jan. 13, at 3 pm, at the Stone Soup Foundation office in Vineyard
Haven. "At this meeting, Deb will give everyone an overview of how she
integrated this project into her curriculum and invite school representatives
to find the best way to make this work for their classes," Ms. Larned
wrote in a letter inviting school teachers to be involved in the project.
Extending the project into school curricula is helpful, according to Ms.
Hamment. "It gives a child a sense of community," she said. "It
shows an interdependency in the community where everyone can do something to
help. And it also gives kids a sense of what they have."
Ms. Larned said that the
Vineyard is the perfect place to start the Celebration of Heroes project.
"People want to know where you stand on this Island," Ms. Larned
said. "It's important to pitch in before you ask for something
back."
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