CNN Heroes

Christmas is over and the New Year is nearly here.  It's time for us to make our New Year's resolutions.  My New Year resolution is to get writing and finish my book.  Oh sure, I had valid reasons for not finishing it this year, but unless something catastrophic happens in 2013, I'm going to finish, revise and submit this book. 

All writers write about heroes and heroines, and that's why I'm going to write about CNN heroes.  These heroes aren't tall, dark and handsome, and they aren't glamorous, but they are heroes.  Many of them put their lives in danger by doing what they do.  They are real-life heroes.

Connie is a doctor and she started a foundation to keep kids in school.  Many kids would stay home to take care of critically ill family members and miss school. This doctor worked to get these kids back in school.

There are over three millions young girls in the world who aren't being educated. A heroine in Afghanistan is helping young girls to get an education.  Now, this is definitely a dangerous job.  It's dangerous for their teacher and for the young ones trying to get an education.  To just walk from their home to the school puts these girls in harms way.

A hero who beat his addiction helps others beat theirs.  He trains them in sports such as running, boxing, mountain climbing and rock climbing.  Wow!  Talk about dangerous--you would never get me up there.  I say whatever it takes to beat drugs. 

A wealthy woman, a banker, in Columbia holds her ill son and he dies in her arms. This loss makes her think of the many poor who can't provide the means to save their loved ones, and she forms a foundation to help women and children in undeveloped countries.

A woman who is a veteran trains dogs to work with veterans who suffer from P.T.S.D., depression and thoughts of suicide.  These soldiers are able to find relief with the help of these animals.

A hero in South Africa helped young people get an education even though he didn't have one.  He helped feed these kids at school.  Can you imagine what this man could have done if he'd been educated?

In Nepal, kids were in prison because their parents were there.  A heroine took the older children and put them in schools.  The ones who were too young to be taken from their parents are taken to a school for 4 or 5 hours a day to learn to read, spell, add and subtract. (By the way, this young woman won the Hero of the Year Award).

A heroine started a project teaching kids to swim after her son drowned.  Many young kids didn't know to be afraid of the water.  She, especially, wanted to make sure black kids learned how to swim.

In Haiti, a woman started a campaign saying, "No to Violence," in order to help kids and women living in tents.  She wrote complaints to authorities for them, provided whistles and hired young men as security just to name a few things she accomplished. 

A man loses his fourteen year old daughter to a drunk driver.  Out of his loss, he challenges the kids at her school not to drink until they are 21.  If they accept the challenge he'll help pay their college fees or for a trade school, whichever they choose.

In my stories, the heroes and heroines represent real life situations, too, and I try to make my characters as realistic as possible.  These people, these heroes are real, too, and it could be time romance novelists start showing these heroes and heroines in our stories. 

Have a wonderful New Year!  See you in 2013!

Sandra K. Marshall

http://www.eirelander-publishing.com
http://www.sandramarshallblog.blogspot.com
https://www.facebook.com/sandra.marshall.98