For Mark Rodgers, it’s all about water. He canoes, he kayaks, he fishes and his career goal is to become a marine biologist. Now Mark is being honored as an Unsung Hero because he has spent time – a lot of time – in a local pool, helping a 12-year-old...

Sherri Goldman is apprehensive. Fidgeting in her chair, she casts about for the right words.Goldman isn’t used to the spotlight. In all of her many volunteer endeavors she has only reluctantly taken the titles of leadership, but given many hundreds...

As someone who taught Flynn Park Elementary School’s youngest students for nearly two decades, Dorothy Meyerson is quick with a joke about her lengthy tenure.“It took me a long time to get out of kindergarten,” she laughed.Even today at age 86,...

Amy Fenster Brown’s reaction when she learned she was to be honored as an Unsung Hero was this: “Who would be delusional enough to nominate me?”She found out soon enough: Jennifer Deutsch, Fenster Brown’s best friend since first grade, and Jenny...

Charlie Chaplin Caplin likely is the best source for information about Debbie Caplin’s years of volunteer work with Support Dogs, Inc., a nonprofit agency that uses trained assistance dogs to improve the quality of life for people with special needs...

Helping others, something he learned early on by observing his father, is now just part of who Harvey Wallace is.“My dad, who ran the warehouse for Sands Drug, a chain of retail drugstores, was a volunteer fireman in University City and a member of...

Sanford “Sandy” Jaffe is not the kind of supporter who whips out a check and smiles for the camera. “Sandy is the kind who hands you a check in private and says just deposit it, don’t talk about it,” says Pat Simons, whose nonprofit organization...

For Myra Rosenthal, the most difficult aspect of being an Unsung Hero may be that she’s the only one named in the honor. “That’s the awkward part of accepting the award,” said Rosenthal, 66, a retired school psychologist and adjunct professor...

The St. Louis Jewish Light honored its 2014 class of Unsung Heroes on Wednesday, May 21 at the Jewish Community Center. This year's Unsung Heroes are: Sandy Jaffe, Sam Klein, Kathy Lebedun, Marvin Beckerman, Dr. Robert and Judy Hellman, Buddy Lebman,...

The value of a meal is sometimes measured by peace of mind. Just ask the University City resident in his 80s who cares for his wife. Also an octogenarian, she has Alzheimer’s disease and, along with memory loss, often stares vacantly at her food.That’s...

Many people are inspired by talks from their rabbi, but it shouldn’t be surprising that Dr. Robert “Bob” and Judy Hellman were moved by the Passover sermon from a visiting spiritual leader at Young Israel. After all, the visiting rabbi was...

For some, civic involvement is a way of life. For Marvin Beckerman, promoting civic involvement in the lives of others is the only way forward. “We’ve influenced the voting of hundreds of thousands of kids and, we hope, their parents as well,”...