CNN Heroes: Everyday People Changing the World

On Sunday, December 17th, CNN presented its 11th Annual “CNN Heroes” show. It featured 10 individuals from around the world (though, mostly, from the U.S.) who have made a significant difference in their communities. They also added a feature showcasing “Young Heroes” — 8 and 10 year olds who have started creative initiatives. 

One of them has started a massive local recycling effort; another, a 10 year old from Tanzania, fashions imaginative teddy bears to give out to kids in hospitals; Mona Patel, a 17 year old whose leg was amputated after a drunk driver crashed into her has begun a support program for others facing the trauma of similar amputations; a fourth youngster, who was adept at computer programing in grade school, realized that very few girls her age had the same skills, so she started a company to attract and train middle school girls to become proficient in programing.

Anderson Cooper and Kathy Ripa co-anchored the program, with Celebrity movie stars introducing each of the heroes and the videos that highlighted their efforts. Each of the ten adults selected receive $10,000 for their non-profit groups, and the winner, chosen by votes from watchers around the country, receives an additional $100,000. Plus, every dollar donated to the heroes by viewers is matched by Subaru, dollar for dollar, up to $50,000 per program. 

My personal favorites included Rosie Mashaly, a retired school teacher from South Africa who had an infant with AIDS dropped off at her doorstep. She took him in, raised him, and, along the way, began a day care center, a school, and a meal program, providing care for over 5,000 abandoned orphans. The other favorite was Samir Lakhane, a young man in his early 30s, who visited Cambodia when he was 20 years old “hoping to make a difference in the world.” On a boat trip to a rural village he noticed a woman bathing her infant son with laundry powder and water. He said, “It was an image I’ll never get out of my mind” — that she — and so many others around her — didn’t have access to a bar of soap that would actually cleanse the infant. 

So he began visiting hotels, asking them to contribute used bars of soap to contribute to his project. He also hired dozens of local women to re-make the bars he collected into full, wrapped bars of soap. Then he passed them out in local schools, creating songs and dances to help educate the children on the benefits of using soap every day to fully clean their bodies (and overcome infections). His company is called “Eco Soap Bank” and, to date, it has helped over 700,000 people receive free bars of soap. Samir ended his brief thank you speech by saying, “I will spend the rest of my life helping children receive bars of soap.”

Another participant, Khali Sweeney, started boxing lessons, coupled with homework help, for youth in Chicago. Older mentors also volunteer, resulting in 100% of the kids in the program graduating from high school. Leslie Morrisette, a woman from Maine whose son died of leukemia when he was 8, has raised money to provide computers (and, in some cases, robots who went to classes in a child’s school), for over 5,000 kids with cancer who spent weeks and months getting treatments in hospitals.

The evening’s Grand Winner was a woman named Amy Wright from Wilmington, North Carolina. She and her husband have four children, two of whom were born with Down Syndrome. As they became teenagers she realized that they — along with 70% of others similarly afflicted — were not able to obtain meaningful employment. So she started a coffee shop, named “Biddy and Beau’s” after the two children with the disease, and hired them, along with 40 other intellectually and physically handicapped people, to staff the shop. She concluded her tearful thank you speech for winning the grand prize by saying, “I want you to know, Biddy and Beau —because I know you are watching — that I would not change anything in the world about you, but I would change the world for you.”

The show is two hours long. Viewers are, indeed, the real winners. You can Google stories about it at “CNN Heroes.” And, perhaps, if you missed it, it will be replayed on CNN.

Jim Ewens, North Lake, WIsconsin