?Since DWAG's Hometown Heroes started, Earl Hensel has been a part of awarding five different heroes. Earl's heroes have included local veteran Mike Reeder, special needs teacher Jan Lincoln, MADD advocate and survivor Millie Webb, Lu Sipos creator of the Chemo Duck and Paul Fleenor, a local veteran who led the charge to bring the Honor Flight Program to Middle Tennessee. Because of Earl's initiative to nominate these locals, each of his heroes has been celebrated for their accomplishment.
It's a known fact around town that Franklin's Downtown area hasn't always been so picturesque. The historic area had fallen into much disrepair and businesses were not thriving, that is until the early 1980's when locals like Ed Silva saw the potential and started to change all of that. "Ed Silva provided extraordinary leadership in our journey to establish Franklin's Main Street as the heart of our community", said Mary Pearce, the Heritage Foundation's Executive Director.
n 1992, Sister Sandra founded Project Reflect, a nonprofit organization in Nashville whose mission is "transforming urban America through education and policy reform." As Executive Director, in 2002 she strongly influenced passage of the first charter school legislation for the State of Tennessee. Under the new law, in August 2003 Project Reflect opened Middle Tennessee's first free, public charter school, Smithson Craighead Academy (SCA) elementary school, which serves 240 children from low-income families who reside in the Davidson County area.
?Each year the Salvation Army's Angel Tree program gives individuals and partnering corporations an opportunity to adopt less fortunate children and seniors who would otherwise receive very little or nothing during the holiday season and provides them with personalized gifts and necessities. Behind the scenes of the Angel Tree program is an army of volunteers, and alongside them is Amanda Grieves, who coordinates the program each year.
?Snowball Express brings together children of the Fallen right before Christmas to have fun, be together, and just heal. The organization provides an opportunity for children to be with others "like them ", to be "normal " because they often are the only ones in their schools and communities who have lost a parent at war, they just feel different. A feeling Samantha Ponder understands all too well, being the daughter of one of our nation's Fallen.
?After years of teaching special education and serving as a JOBS coordinator, which involved a "school to work " transition classroom for young adults with special needs, Brenda Hauk felt led to open a Christian-based job training center for adults who live with developmental disabilities. She visited several facilities, established relationships with mentors, and in 1999, BrightStone opened with 4 students, a volunteer staff of two, and donated space in a local church.
?There are few in Williamson County who haven't been impacted by Jimmy Gentry in one way or another. Whether it's been through a simple visit to his family farm to pick pumpkins, in the classroom, on the football field, or by listening to him speak about his experience serving our country in World War II, Gentry's story is an extraordinary one.
One week before his first birthday, on Christmas Day 2002, Lu Sipos' son Gabe was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma. He learned how to walk and talk while enduring 30 days of 9 months of Chemotherapy treatments and numerous surgeries. Like many parents, Lu found herself feeling lost during this time, unsure of what her role on her son's medical team looked like. That is until she created the first Chemo Duck.
Peggy Smith or Ms. Peggy, as she is affectionately called by Club members, is also known as the PBJ lady. Ms. Peggy has been known to not only drop everything to make a child in need a hot meal, she spends up to 5 days a week at the Club preparing and serving snack. She has made it her mission to educate the general public about the challenges faced by the many children that may go hungry during the summer, on the weekends, or simply after the school day has ended.
In 2010, Mary Mader and Carole Horlacher became volunteers for Williamson County Animal Services in Franklin. Seeing a need to help the shelter staff, they set up a desk at the front door and implemented a meet and greet strategy for all potential adopters. Mary and Carole know the right questions to ask and daily they help "match " adopters and pets. This process helps insure a good, lasting adoption. They also help with off-site events, coming early and staying late, setting up, keeping up with adoption contracts and other paperwork.
