Another year, and another group of people who, based on their deeds and actions, deserve to be called heroes.
For the second consecutive year, the Enterprise-Record and Mercury-Register — in a joint project with a dozen other Northern California newspapers that are part of the California Newspaper Partnership — are asking readers to nominate people for our “Butte County Hero” feature.
Here’s how: Just send an email to heroes@chicoer.com and tell us who you’d like to nominate, and why.
We’ll convene a panel to review the entries, and in January, we’ll announce five finalists and write stories on each, highlighting their “heroic” acts.
From there, we’ll choose one as the winner, honoring that person as our second “Butte County Hero” in our Sunday edition of Feb. 16.
The overall winner will receive a $500 cash prize, an honor that will be repeated for “Hometown Heroes” throughout our Northern California newspaper group from Monterey to Eureka. Last year’s winner in Butte County was Bob Trausch, co-founder of the Chico Housing Action Team.
How you choose your hero, and what criteria you want to establish for your hero, is entirely up to you. You can send us an email about anyone you see as someone who does great things for other people, or animals, or the environment, or anything you consider hero-worthy. We’ll give equal consideration to heroes who perform their extraordinary feats behind the scenes as those who are paid to do it.
We’re giving you about two weeks to complete this task. Nominations are due Friday, Jan. 10, at noon.
From there, our panel of judges will pick five finalists, who we’ll honor in a weekly series of stories beginning Sunday, Jan. 12, before announcing our overall “hero” Feb. 16.
The everyday heroics of people doing great things behind the scenes have always been a big part of what makes Butte County such a special place to live. We’re looking forward to receiving your nominations and sharing their stories.