My Hero: Extraordinary People on the Heroes Who Inspire Them

by The My Hero Project (Editor)

Overview

In My Hero, some of the brightest lights from around the globe share -- in their own words -- stories about the people who have been the greatest source of strength and inspiration to them. With essays by military heroes, political leaders, and Nobel Prize winners, sports heroes, firefighters, scientists, and schoolteachers -- and with an introduction by basketball legend, businessman, and philanthropist Earvin "Magic" Johnson -- this collection gathers individuals who themselves are shining examples to tell us about the people who have illuminated their own lives.
• How did Dana Reeve come to find such grit and grace when her fairy-tale prince was thrown from his real-life steed, paralyzed from the neck down?
• What traits of baseball great Ted Williams have inspired war hero Senator John McCain since childhood?
• What impact did Nelson Mandela have on boxing legend Muhammad Ali?
• Why does one of the all-time greats of baseball, Yogi Berra, believe that he owes each of his legendary home runs to his brothers?
• How did Michael J. Fox find a woman who would walk away from a spectacular career in finance in order to fight for a cure for Parkinson's disease at the helm of his nonprofit foundation?
• Why does John Glenn, a man who flew into space twice and served a quarter century on the Senate floor, look up to his own wife, Annie Glenn, as the true hero in the family?
In a world hungry for good examples, My Hero reminds us that heroes come in all shapes and sizes. It also teaches us that the words and deeds of those who inspire us are as varied as the stars that illuminate the night.
The editors of My Hero and the contributors are donating all royalties from this book to the nonprofit My Hero Project.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780743292405
Publisher:	Free Press
Publication date:	11/08/2005
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	520 KB

About the Author

The My Hero Project is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to inspire the hero in all of us by shining a spotlight on real-life examples of people at their best. The three founders: Karen Pritzker, formerly a magazine editor, works as an advocate for literacy and children's issues. She served as Editor for this book. Rita Stern is an artist and Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker and was an architect of the original My Hero web site. Jeanne Meyers is a film and multimedia producer who helped develop and has continued to direct the award-winning My Hero web site since its inception. The founders can be reached at www.myhero.com.

Read an Excerpt

My Hero

Extraordinary People on the Heroes Who Inspire Them

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By The My Hero Project

Free Press

Copyright © 2005 The My Hero Project
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0743283457

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Foreword

How far that little candle throws his beams!

So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

-- William Shakespeare

In the late summer of 1968, I watched from my bedroom window as police in riot gear battled protesters and bystanders in Chicago's Lincoln Park. Earlier that spring, I'd heard my parents talk in hushed voices about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. The jungles of Vietnam burned nightly on our TV screens, and the aftermath of Richard Speck's murderous rampage -- eight nurses killed right in my neighborhood -- continued to dominate the front pages of the newspaper.

Those were turbulent and violent times, especially confusing for a fourth-grader. But I was fortunate, because what I recall most vividly from my childhood are not these violent images, but the stories of bravery, generosity, and heroic endeavor shared by my parents and their friends around our dinner table. It was there that my siblings and I heard about a white manufacturer who refused to build a factory in the South with two separate sets of water fountains and bathrooms for "coloreds" and whites, and a woman who left her sorority in protest because they opposed her having a Japanese boyfriend. I sat spellbound as a Jewish visitor told us how a Christian family rescued him from a war-torn Poland, raised him, and then returned him to his mother's arms after World War II was over.

Stories like these (and there were many more) showed me how courageous, honorable, giving, and fair people could be even -- perhaps especially -- in bad times. Hearing these tales, I imagined myself in the shoes of the people described, confronted by similar challenges, and I hoped I'd make similarly courageous choices.

I was ten when I got the idea of starting a "good news" newspaper, filled strictly with news of good works. I realized even then that real-life stories of sacrifice, heroism, and courage make great copy. My good newspaper would trumpet the best of humanity and provide a counterpoint to the "if it bleeds, it leads" ethic that buries good news in the back pages.

I grew up, and my dream of a good news newspaper got tabled, as dreams sometimes do. But even as I went on to a career in journalism and a family of my own, the idea stayed with me. The chance to realize this childhood dream came in the mid-nineties, when two friends, the accomplished filmmakers Jeanne Meyers and Rita Stern, approached me about My Hero.

They were mothers of young children at the time, as was I, and like most parents, eager to make the world a better place for their kids. Specifically, they were concerned that traditional heroes were conspicuously absent from the great grab bag of popular culture offered to our kids, eclipsed by superheroes, pop stars, and celebrities. Jeanne and Rita's point was that heroes were still all around us, but they weren't getting airtime.

Their solution: a web site called myhero.com, which would celebrate heroes and heroism. Here children and their parents could read and post stories of courage and inspiration to share with people around the world. This truly was my good news newspaper -- only better.

The mission of the My Hero web site is to spotlight real-life stories that "Celebrate the Best of Humanity." That's what visitors have been doing since 1995. My hero.com now welcomes more than a million visitors each month. Clearly we weren't the only ones starving for some good news!

The stories we receive from visitors to our web site testify to the fact that heroism comes in many shapes, sometimes unexpected. They also remind us of the boundless generosity and goodwill of our fellow men and women. Kids often write about their favorite sports idols, civil rights leaders, musicians, and movie stars. Yet there is also an unending stream of tributes paid to unsung heroes: neighbors, grandparents, nurses, or that special teacher, and, in one instance, a sister who had declared a temporary cease-fire in a particularly bitter sibling dispute -- just long enough to donate her kidney to the brother who'd have died without it.

One of the privileges of working on the web site is to have a ringside seat at a steady stream of stories about remarkable heroes. Reading these sparked a question that was the catalyst for this book: "Who inspires the heroes who so inspire the rest of us?" From what reservoir do our heroes draw their strength and inspiration?

As you will see in the pages that follow, we have gathered a broad spectrum of contributors. Included here are military heroes, first responders, and sports greats, Nobel Prize recipients, legendary artists, and world-class scientists; world leaders and ordinary people who have done extraordinary things. Our contributors come from all walks of life and from around the globe, but if they have one thing in common, it's this: Because of them the world is richer and brighter. These are the people who have inspired us and others, by word, action, and deed. In this book, they share stories about the people who inspired them.

If we have learned anything from the stories collected in this book, it's that a single stone thrown in a pond can produce ripples that will extend farther than anyone can imagine at the moment of impact. An act of heroism isn't quantifiable; there's no measure of the lives it will touch. No matter who our contributors chose as heros, or why, their choices reveal how their own paths were illuminated, and by doing so shed precious light on our own.

Karen Pritzker

for The My Hero Project

Copyright © 2005 by The My Hero Project

Continues...

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Excerpted from My Hero by The My Hero Project Copyright © 2005 by The My Hero Project.
Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

The unsung heroes of the My Hero Project have compiled a collection of inspiring essays by respected celebrities about their personal heroes. The roster of contributors resounds with honor: Michael J. Fox, Senator John McCain, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, astronaut John Glenn, Nelson Mandela, Elie Wiesel, Billy Jean King, Studs Terkel, and Frank Gehry.