Last year nearly twenty professional North American sports leagues came together to recognize individuals in the healthcare field for their work against the Covid-19 virus. Called The Real Heroes Project, this alliance sought to not only bring awareness, but to help support healthcare workers. To those ends, numerous professional athletes appeared in brief YouTube videos to thank individuals they knew in the healthcare field.
Starting in 2020, the minting company CTI began producing a series of annual coins dubbed the “Real Heroes” collection to honor role models. In 2020 the company came out with several versions of a Fighter Pilot coin, and in 2021 they are releasing a Firefighter coin.
Every year branches of the American Red Cross hold annual celebrations, meals or other gatherings as part of their Real Heroes Awards to take note of individuals they consider local heroes. For instance, later this year the American Red Cross of Southern California and the American Red Cross of Central and Northern New York are holding awards ceremonies at special breakfasts, while the American Red Cross of the Elmira, New York, region will honor its local heroes through an event to be shown live on the big screen at a drive-in theater.
Here at Rogue Blades we talk a lot about heroes. We write a lot about heroes. Most often we are probably talking or writing about fictional heroes, mainly because they abound and because many such heroes are quite popular. But that doesn’t mean we have forgotten about the real heroes, about those who put their lives on the line, who sacrifice of themselves not only physically, but also emotionally and mentally, and perhaps even spiritually.
Often enough we focus upon fictional heroes to help shed light on the real heroes, to remind all of us that heroes are out there, truly out there. Also, fictional heroes help to show us that we can be heroes, too, at least under the right circumstances.
But that doesn’t mean we are going to forget those real heroes.
At the start of this article I wanted to let readers know about a few initiatives that provide awareness of some real heroes, but I also want to challenge readers. Look around. Are there programs in your own community that honor heroes? Do you know of such heroes? If so, let us know in the Comments section below. We’d love to hear about those you consider heroic, and I’m sure our other readers would love to know about them as well. Perhaps in this little space, in our own little way, be can also honor those who are worth being honored. After all, they deserve it.