Heroes – In the line of duty – Slice of Life heroic moments

January 9, 2012

Ok, I am not featuring Tim Tebow and his Bronco’s here beating the Steelers in OT. However, it was a great 3 days for learning of other heroic moments and the people who then appear in front of may camera.

Heroes are everywhere amongst us (sort of like Angels) – they are not always recognized or seen but their actions speak loudly. For instance over the past three days I and my camera came across people doing simple heroic actions – just being themselves – as a part of a normal day-in-their slice of life moment

Think Bocce Ball/Special Olympics, Rescue Pets and a Congressional Badge of Bravery Award – wow how can I connect those. Look below.

Bocce Ball – Unified Sports in Montgomery County, MD – Saturday January 7th

Four Montgomery County High School teams became the first among all county teams to kick off the inaugural Winter Bocce Ball season for Maryland Special Olympics Unified Sports. Seneca Valley, Clarksburg, Gaithersburg and Quince Orchard met at the latter’s home court outfitted for Bocce Ball courtesy of Special Olympics. Though all their coaches promised me that I would have a roster of the players, at the time of this writing I do not have their names – so enjoy these few slice of life moements of the Quad Matches. See more photos at SugarloafPhoto – Unified Sports.

Animal Welfare Advocate – Hal Horenberg – Sunday, January 8th

It was only a momentary slice of life meeting but it was one of those moments when you run into someone who truly is doing the volunteer heroic in a quiet one-off manner. In Hal’s case he has been an advocate for rescue pets since 2008 to the detriment of building his software business. Hal success lies in the fact that he has placed 90 rescue dogs into homes. He shows off his successes by wearing a lab coat covered in buttons of pet pictures and when you closely you can see that he has also created a shirt with heart-shaped photos of all the dogs in the form of a heart over his heart. Is he driven – I would say so and if you are interested check out these associated websites at Pet Connect Rescue, CASA, PAWS, Reach Out Rescue and Resources, and Mutts Matter Rescue.

Congressional Bravery Award Recipient – Montgomery County Officer Edward E. Paden, Jr – Monday, January 9th.

Today in Rockville, Officer Paden received this country’s highest award, created by Congress in 2008, to honor local, state and federal law enforcement officers who have distinguished themselves for exceptional acts of bravery in the line of duty. Officer Paden, who on September 1, 2010 had just completed a triathlon-training swim in the Chesapeake Bay returned to his Silver Spring MD station and immediately, responded to report of a terrorist-hostage event unfolding at the Discovery Channel Headquarters. He was the first responder on the scene (his normal beat is in Silver Spring) and there he reported on the bomb-carrying terrorist (James Lee) thus preventing him from entering any further than the first floor of Discovery’s Georgia Avenue location. Eventually, support arrived from MCPD, MCFR and numerous state, federal and local enforcement agencies. His actions that day was said to have saved countless lives (over 1000). Today, US Senator Ben Cardin, US Representative Chris Van Hollen, MCPS Commander Thomas Manger and County Executive Ike Leggett were on hand to present Ofc. Paden with the Congressional Badge of Bravery Award.