Community heroes honored

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Neighbors | Submitted.Youngstown's Joel Imler (left) was invited by fifth-grader Mark Smaldino for Glenwood's Giraffe Heroes Project. Imler saved four children from being killed in a house fire resulting in severe burns throughout his body.

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Neighbors | Submitted.Fifth-grader Sophia Schiler (left) chose Boardman's Ken Neese as her community hero. Neese used his personal finances to take care of an abandoned home to keep his neighborhood safe.

Heroes don’t reside in a specific town or have to accomplish a specific task. They just put the needs of others before their own.

Students at Boardman Glenwood Middle School invited heroes from their community to speak to their class as a part of their Giraffe Heroes Project. The Giraffe Project is a national nonprofit organization that honors heroes that commonly go unknown.

The organization’s motto is “stick your neck out,” which means placing someone else’s need ahead of your own for the common good of the community.

Fifth-grade students of Kathie Rothman and Joyce Zitkovich were given the task of researching and sorting through newspaper articles and archives to find individuals in their community they believed were heroes.

The fifth-graders chose eight heroes from the surrounding area to visit the class during the week of May 11. Each hero was presented with a poster board to show appreciation of their selfless service.

Boardman’s Lisa Navarro was invited for donating her hair to Locks for Love and Ken Neese for his funding efforts to control an abandoned neighborhood home.

Youngstown residents Joel Imler, Ra’Shawd Davis and May Alyce were also invited. Imler saved four children from a burning home while babysitting, Alyce organized a project for Akron Children’s Hospital patients and Davis organized a free tutoring program for low income families through his college fraternity.

Howland’s Lauren Wilmer organized an Easter Egg hunt for foster children and Austintown’s James Seidler volunteered as a bone marrow donor. There were also named as heroes.