Times-Herald is looking for `Hometown Heroes'

The overall winner will receive a $500 cash prize

Every town has its heroes. More often than not, you never learn their names. Not all heroes wear capes, and we believe an overwhelming majority of the real heroes in our lives clad themselves in nothing more grand than cloaks of anonymity.

That's why we're announcing something new today: A chance for each of you to tell us about someone who qualifies as a “hometown hero” in your eyes.

(Keep reading. In addition to some well-deserved recognition, there's money involved here.)

First, we'll note that real heroes take on many shapes and sizes, and they're usually a far cry from the perfectly sculpted action figures we grew up watching in the movies. Instead, in our eyes, true heroes are many of the regular people we see doing regular things every day.

It might be the home health care worker providing muchneeded companionship for our senior citizens, the firefighter putting his or her life on the line to keep the rest of us safe, or a coach donating his time on behalf of our kids (while putting up with everything else that entails).

How about the school board trustee who puts education above politics? Or the homeless advocate who spends countless hours offering help and supplies to our citizens who need it the most?

Our town is filled with heroes such as these, and in many other arenas too numerous to mention. We think it's past time more of these “hometown heroes” get their due.

So, today, we're asking for your assistance in helping us identify a few.

The Vallejo Times-Herald and Vacaville Reporter, in a joint project with a dozen other Northern California newspapers that are part of the California Newspaper Partnership, are asking readers to nominate candidates for our first “Solano County Hero” feature.

Here's how: Just send an email to heroes@timesheraldonline. com and tell us who you'd like to nominate, and why.

We'll convene a panel to review

the entries, and in early September, we'll announce five finalists and write stories on each, highlighting their “heroic” acts.

From there, we'll choose one as the winner, honoring that person as our first “Solano County Hero” in our Sunday, Sept. 10 edition.

The overall winner will receive a $500 cash prize, an honor that will be repeated for “Hometown Heroes” throughout our north state newspaper group from Monterey to Eureka.

How you choose your hero, and what criteria you want to establish for your hero, is entirely up to you. You can send us an email about anyone you see as someone who does great things for other people, or animals, or the environment, or anything

you consider hero-worthy. We'll give equal consideration to heroes who perform their extraordinary feats behind the scenes, and those who are paid to do it.

We're giving you about two weeks to complete this task. Nominations are due Friday, Sept. 1 at noon.

From there, our panel of judges will pick five finalists, who we'll honor in a series of stories beginning Tuesday, Sept. 5 before announcing our overall “hero” Sept. 10.

The everyday heroics of people doing great things behind the scenes have always been a big part of what makes Solano County such a special place to live. We're looking forward to receiving your nominations and sharing their stories.

After all, not all heroes wear capes.

To nominate a hometown hero, please send an email to heroes@timesheraldonline.com