Edmund Benson of Miami FL roared out of a comfortable retirement to close down a toxic waste incinerator that was a public health danger. In 1990 he kicked off the US's largest curbside recycling program. He has also overhauled his county's school lunch program, instigated an integrated pest management program in school and county buildings, and established a yearly event fostering community acceptance of mental patients.
Home when commended: North America, US, Florida Home now: North America, US, Florida Gender: M (male) For more information, click on the Giraffe's name.
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After his retirement from a business career, Ward Bentley of Dallas TX didn’t choose to take it easy. Instead he became “Papa Calle,” founding Children of the Americas to care for abandoned kids all over Central America. His philosophy: Each of us is parent to every child.
Home when commended: North America, US, Texas Home now: North America, US, Texas Gender: M (male) For more information, click on the Giraffe's name.
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Bonita Bergin of Santa Rosa CA has poured all her time and resources into training dogs to assist disabled people. Though scoffed at by expert trainers, Bergen was determined to make her nonprofit, Canine Companions, the success it is today, providing hundreds of service dogs to the disabled.
Home when commended: North America, US, California Home now: North America, US, California Gender: F (female) For more information, click on the Giraffe's name.
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While still a student at NYU, Eddie Bergman used the entrepreneurial skills he’d learned in starting several businesses to help Arusha, a village in Tanzania, develop a sustainable economy. Bergman and fellow Giraffe Robert Alsbrooks, inspired by Giraffe Herman Wrice, created Miracle Corners of the World, a nonprofit doing sustainable, youth-led development in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and in the US.
Home when commended: North America, US, New York Home now: North America, US, New York Gender: M (male) For more information, click on the Giraffe's name.
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John Bergman of East Swanzey NH, founded The Geese Theater Company, a troop of actors who tour the country doing confrontational theater inside prisons, giving up their professional prospects to work face-to-face with inmates, many of them violent offenders.
Home when commended: North America, US, New Hampshire Home now: North America, US, New Hampshire Gender: M (male) For more information, click on the Giraffe's name.
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Michael Berkeley, an orthopedic surgeon, moved from repairing the skiing injuries of Aspen's rich and famous to giving free medical care to the Tarahuara in Mexico's Sierra Madre Mountains, where no one has ever seen a ski. Berkeley is expanding his free hospital to include dentistry and a food bank.
Home when commended: North America, US, Colorado Home now: North America, US, Colorado Gender: M (male) For more information, click on the Giraffe's name.
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Jack Berlin of Los Angeles CA teamed up with Giraffe Sue Silbert to provide free meals to hungry families. Berlin donated trucks full of vegetables from his produce business and dragooned other food brokers into making big donations too.
Home when commended: North America, United States, California Home now: North America, United States, California Gender: M (male) For more information, click on the Giraffe's name.
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Counselor Anjanay Berrocal provides an oasis for women lost in the desert of drug and alcohol abuse. Berrocal's “Oasis House” in Los Angeles is a safe place to get clean and sober, learn job and parenting skills and begin taking on responsibilities. Berrocal knows first hand how tough it can be to escape a life on the streets—she spent 20 years of her own life there. Giraffe work location(s): North America, US, CaliforniaHome when commended: North America, US, California Home now: North America, US, California Gender: F (female) For more information, click on the Giraffe's name.
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Roman Catholic priest Thomas Berry sacrificed advancement in the Church and in academia to challenge traditional church teachings. St. John's University fired Berry, but he continues to speak out for "creation theology," a view not accepted by traditional theologians.
Home when commended: North America, US, New York Home now: North America, US, New York Gender: M (male) For more information, click on the Giraffe's name.
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John Berter sacrificed his career in federal service to protest the abuse of patients at Cincinnati's VA hospital. Berter was a security officer at the hospital when he blew the whistle on his boss for abusing black patients and staff. Berter was harassed, threatened and fired, but the abusing supervisor was finally stopped.
Home when commended: North America, US, Ohio Home now: North America, US, Ohio Gender: M (male) For more information, click on the Giraffe's name.
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Chitra Besbroda is a social worker in Harlem by day, and a rescuer of abused pet animals by night. She’s faced down hostile owners to save thousands of beaten, starved guard dogs and is working to establish a safe house where they can recover before going to loving homes.
Home when commended: North America, US, New York Home now: North America, US, New York Gender: F (female) For more information, click on the Giraffe's name.
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Jane Best was a founder of God's Love, We Deliver, a nonprofit that took gourmet meals to homebound people with AIDS in the days when no one was sure how AIDS was communicated. Hundreds of these caring New Yorkers deliver five-course meals to PWA's all over the city. (See also Ganga Stone.)
Home when commended: North America, US, New York Home now: North America, US, New York Gender: F (female) For more information, click on the Giraffe's name.
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Chandi Prasad Bhatt of Uttar Pradesh, India, has devoted his life to guiding the Chipko movement in northern India, fighting powerful logging companies who were destroying Himalayan mountain forest environments. Thousands of villagers joined Chipko, literally hugging trees to prevent them from being clearcut.
Home when commended: Asia, India Home now: Asia, India Gender: M (male) For more information, click on the Giraffe's name.
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Ela Bhatt of Ahmedabad, India, championed disadvantaged women by organizing them into a credit union, the Self-Employed Women's Association. Over 15,000 women who sell goods and produce on India's sidewalks have joined SEWA, opening new markets, getting and repaying loans, and improving their families' economic and social status.
Home when commended: Asia, India Home now: Asia, India Gender: F (female) For more information, click on the Giraffe's name.
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Kathy Biedenharn, an heiress and the wife of a successful business executive, earned the disapproval of many peers by surrounding herself with convicted thieves and murderers. Biedenharn runs four halfway houses for state and federal inmates. Though 76% of Louisiana's felons return to prison, only 15% of the graduates of Biedenharn's programs have re-offended. Biedenharn shows her "clients" that they can change their lives, and then sees that they do, providing schooling, job training and counseling.
Home when commended: North America, US, Louisiana Home now: North America, US, Louisiana Gender: F (female) For more information, click on the Giraffe's name.
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The staff of the Big Mountain Legal Office in Flagstaff AZ provides free legal service and support to the Dineh (Navajo) people challenging the US Government's forced relocation plan. The BMLO brought a landmark First Amendment suit, "In Defense of Sacred Lands," to establish the right of the Dineh to remain on their lands and practice their traditional religion.
Home when commended: North America, US, Arizona Home now: North America, US, Arizona Gender: G (group) For more information, click on the Giraffe's name.
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FIND GIRAFFES
Please note
We're adding stories and photos to the Giraffe Heroes database everyday. If information isn't visible yet, know that we're working on it.
YOU & THE FOUNDER
From time to time, Ann Medlock, this Project's founder, does a brief but inspiring email called Heads Up. You can check out past copies here. They're so good (and so free) we bet you'll join the Heads Up circle and send them on to friends & family.
For further wit & wisdom from Ann, check out her speeches, radio commentaries and OpEds.