Hero

It was all there -- palm trees, swags of rope netting, and a sign announcing "Camp Kucha." Hey, was that the signature wail of a conch shell, declaring the start of the "Survivor" TV show? Nah. More the thump of disco music. This was no remote island or outback either. Rather, it was the Hippo nightclub, where no one was being voted off. In fact, folks just kept arriving at HERO's second annual spring party -- this year called Survivor Party 2001. Included in the hardy bunch of 350: Tina Lazar, event chair; Keith Pollanen, event co-chair; Anne B. Mulligan, Gary Wolnitzek, Heather Kitsko, Jenine Baker and Kristi Pettibone, event committee members; Joseph Anastasio, HERO board president; Carlton R. Smith, Lenora Davis, Wayman Merrick, Michael Miller, Rev. David Smith, and Jim Sterling, HERO board members; Dr. Leonardo Ortega, HERO executive director; Craig Wiley, Center for Poverty Solutions annual campaigns director; Gail Godwin, the Ark Northern Chesapeake Region program director; Chuck Bowers, Hippo owner; Denise Klicos, DK Salon owner; Peter Bartells, Rita St. Clair Associates interior designer; Hilary Christian, Service Coordination service coordinator; Hugh Jones, Morgan State University student; Reginald Hope, Hope Catering Co. owner; Jackie Merrick, Aramark accountant; Dr. Allan R. Rutzen, University Laser Vision Center co-director; Jon Kaplan, Image Marketing Group president; Rut Paal, Rutland Beard Florist owner; Robert Mittleman, Salon at Stevenson cosmetologist;...

The One Love Foundation announced Thursday that North Carolina's Zoe Skinner (Towson High) and Loyola's Jason Crane (Chesapeake-Anne Arundel) have been selected as the 2013 Yeardley Reynolds Love Unsung Hero Award winners.  Now in its third year, the award celebrates selfless acts of initiative and commitment performed by Division I lacrosse players; it is named after the former Notre Dame Prep and Virginia player.  Skinner and Crane are being rewarded...

A s fireworks erupted, we stood with tears of pride as Baltimore's blue-eyed home-run hitter took his last lap around the bases. Cal Ripken Jr. retired from baseball in the autumn of 2001, after 21 seasons and 3,001 games. With his charming combination of athletic ability and old-school work ethic, he seemed like one of the last genuine role models. A year later, we lost another great one when we buried Baltimore Colts legend John Unitas. The Hall of Fame quarterback with the golden arm died of a heart attack at 69. Baltimore might have been without a solid sports hero for a couple of years, but at the 2004 Olympics, a teen-age swimming phenom with crazy long arms and big ears splashed onto the scene.

The Maryland and District of Columbia Lacrosse Club Lazers finished with a clean sweep of all of the brackets in the National Premier Youth Girls Lacrosse League spring season. In the 2017 bracket, it was a hard-fought game between Hero's and M&D. Hero's was up 7-6 before the Lazers went on a 6-0 run to secure the victory. M&D goalie Jen Schaaf came up with some huge saves in the second half. Lutherville residents Riley Thacker and Margaret Root excelled for the Lazers. Goalie Julia Cooper led the Lazers in a tight game to finish the season undefeated in the 2018 bracket.

What a wonderful, warm story you published about Michael Rose nband ("Former Wall Street success finds new path reviving Carver baseball," May 11) He is a hero to all, giving up a successful job at age 40 to give back to these desiring young people. Now we should hope that our sports figures and big business owners will give back to Mr. Rosenband and his cause! We need more people like him to give our young citizens a chance in this world. Renee Di Giorgio, Ellicott City Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

Steve Job's death had the same impact on the younger generation of today that the death of John F. Kennedy had on a previous generation While it is difficult to quantify the impact of one person on an entire generation, it is safe to say that the passing of Steve Jobs had the same impact on the younger generation of today that the death of John F. Kennedy had on a previous generation. For those who witnessed both events, we will always remember where we were and what we were doing when both of these heroes passed on. Paul Jankovic, Bethany Beach, Del.

I was saddened to learn of the death of John Burleigh ("Civil rights activist helped organize demonstration at Gwynn Oak Park, was active in CORE," July 20). He was an unsung hero of the civil rights struggle. The purpose of this letter is to fill in some of the gaps in his obituary. I first met John in the early 1960s when he organized a demonstration that took place in front of the Social Security headquarters to protest the agency's racially discriminatory hiring and promotion practices.

I was pleased to read your recent article regarding the lawsuit against Ticketmaster ("City politicians rush to save Ticketmaster's user fees," Feb. 24). I now know who to thank: Kudos to Andre Bourgeois for bringing the suit and winning the case. I attend many productions in Baltimore, be they at the Meyerhoff, the Lyric or elsewhere around town. But I will never go to any event unless I can buy a ticket at the box office. Every company is entitled to make a profit for its services, but the exorbitant fees tacked onto tickets by Ticketmaster, which I refuse to pay, are pure gouging.

Joe Cummings' game-winning goal with six seconds left in the fourth quarter propelled Maryland to a 10-9 upset of No. 7 seed Lehigh in a NCAA tournament first-round contest Sunday night and a quarterfinal date with No. 2 seed Johns Hopkins. But the senior attackman said the true heroics were provided by senior midfielder Drew Snider, who scored two of his game-high three goals in the fourth quarter and collected a key ground ball that set up Cummings' score. “I can't take that credit,” the Towson native and Loyola graduate said Tuesday when asked about being the Terps' hero.

Dearest Sarah, You are my hero! It would have been so easy to say, "Oops, I misspoke. You see, I've been on the road, I haven't slept much, and I have this terrible fire in the belly. Of course, Paul Revere wasn't warning the British…" But no. You stuck to your story with, "I know my American history. " What do those Bostonians know about Paul Revere anyway? The important thing here is that you looked so attractive while saying it! Where were you, Sarah Palin, when I was getting a "D" in American history in college?

At the Saturday, Feb. 9 Harbor of Grace Chapter meeting of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the membership was treated to a presentation by Dawn Fairchild, "Image of a Hero - Recreating George Washington's Revolutionary War Uniform. " Fairchild discussed her construction of George Washington's uniform using authentic materials. Her husband, Bill Myers, attended the meeting modeling one of the uniforms.

What a wonderful, warm story you published about Michael Rose nband ("Former Wall Street success finds new path reviving Carver baseball," May 11) He is a hero to all, giving up a successful job at age 40 to give back to these desiring young people. Now we should hope that our sports figures and big business owners will give back to Mr. Rosenband and his cause! We need more people like him to give our young citizens a chance in this world. Renee Di Giorgio, Ellicott City Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

Sarah Dorl and James Frieson both regularly took care of many jobs that helped their respective teams, tasks that wouldn't show up in a score sheet. But the work Dorl did for the Dulaney basketball team and Frieson put in for Towson football finally earned some notice Monday night when they won top honors at the 73rd Annual McCormick Unsung Heroes Awards banquet at the Hunt Valley Inn. Dorl and Frieson became the 70th and 71st winners of the Charles Perry McCormick Scholarship, established in 1969.

Kelly, Crane among finalists for Yeardley Love Unsung Hero Award North Carolina junior midfielder Frankie Kelly (Calvert Hall) and Loyola freshman defenseman Jason Crane (Chesapeake-Anne Arundel), North Carolina junior defender Zoe Skinner (Towson High) and Notre Dame junior defender Molly Shawhan , who lives in Fulton, are among the 10 finalists for the Yeardley Reynolds Love Unsung Hero Award. Established in 2011 in honor of the late Virginia player, a Cockeysville native, the award recognizes the selfless acts of initiative and commitment by Division I lacrosse players.

More than 100 student athletes from 73 Baltimore-area  high schools will be honored Monday night at the 73 rd Annual McCormick Unsung Heroes Award Banquet at the Hunt Valley Inn. One football player and one girls basketball player will be awarded the Charles Perry McCormick scholarships, valued at $36,000 over four years of college. They keynote speaker will be best-selling author Wes Moore, whose book 'The Other Wes Moore" is set to be made into a movie. An paratrooper with the Army in Afghanistan, Moore played football at Johns Hopkins, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 2001.

Sarah Holbrook, a senior at McDaniel College, knows first-hand the gratitude for a home-cooked meal during a family crisis. When she was 11, her 9-year-old brother died of leukemia. That's why she's been involved since she was a freshman with Heroes Helping Hopkins, an on-campus group that cooks meals for families at the Believe in Tomorrow Children's House, which provides a place to stay for families with children being treated for serious illnesses at Johns Hopkins hospital. "I understand what they're going through how hard it can be, how exhausting," said Holbrook, co-president of the group.

College football Navy alum, Cotton Bowl hero Oldham dead at 74 Edwin W. "Ned" Oldham II, , captain of the Navy team that beat Rice in the 1958 Cotton Bowl and ended the season ranked No. 3 in the country, died June 28 in Naples, Fla. He was 74. Oldham, a 1958 graduate, scored all 14 points in the Army-Navy game his senior year. He commanded his company his final semester and percent of his graduating class and was named a Scholastic All-American. A memorial fund has been established for Oldham for the Athletic Excellence Program.

"Max Payne 3" Xbox 360/PS3/PC Rockstar Score: 3 stars (out of 4) “Max Payne 3” is as much a meditation on '90s action films and hard-boiled detective noir as it is an excellent third-person shooter. Some video games are “cinematic” in the sense that they force you to watch a lot of cutscenes that try and explain what you've just done or are about to do. “Max Payne 3” turns you loose to shoot bad guys because after the deftly interwoven story moments, it seems like the right thing to do at the time.

When the Hontz family lost their Hanover home to a fire last summer, it wasn't long before they started missing the basic necessities. First, it was a toothbrush. Then, a Band-Aid. But for Lauren Hontz, who was just 9 years old at the time, all she really wanted was a blanket to call her own. The family quickly received more blankets than they could possibly use, which gave Lauren an idea. If all she wanted was a blanket after her fire, then wouldn't other people want one too? With this in mind, she asked her parents if they could donate the extras.

"Now is the time... " -- Martin Luther King, Aug. 28, 1963 Brendon Ayanbadejo is wrong. It is painful to say that. Mr. Ayanbadejo's heart is in a good place, and the advice he gave recently on MSNBC's "The Ed Show" was practical and well intentioned. But mainly, yes, it was wrong. Here's the back story. It seems NFL prospect Nick Kasa recently told ESPN Radio that he was asked in an interview with a team he won't specify whether he is married, if he has a girlfriend and whether he likes girls.