CNN, the world news leader, has announced the Top 10 CNN Heroes for 2011. All these ten individuals are the everyday people who tried to bring some positive change in the world. People will now select “CNN Hero of the Year” from these 10 individual through online voting. The voting for selecting the CNN Hero opened on September 22, 2011, at 8:00 AM ET, and will run through December 7, 2011, at Midnight PT.
Each of the ten selected CNN Heroes will get a $50,000 grant. The person who will be selected as “CNN Hero of the Year” will receive an additional $250,000 grant to further aid their cause. CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute Event will air LIVE on CNN at 8:00 PM ET, on Sunday, December 11, 2011. It will honor individuals who are making extraordinary contributions to help improve the lives of others.
The honorees for 2011, whose profiles are available to view at www.cnnheroes.com, are:
Amy Stokes (Yonkers, NY): In sub-Saharan Africa, nearly 15 million children have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS. New York resident Amy Stokes decided to bring the effect of caring adults living elsewhere into the lives of South African children. She started Infinite Family in 2006, using the internet to connect hundreds of teen ‘Net Buddies’ with adult mentor volunteers from around the world.
Bruno Serato (Anaheim, CA): For two decades, Bruno Serato has been doing what he loves: feeding customers at his restaurant in Anaheim, California. But six years ago, he realized that many of the children at his local Boys and Girls Club often go to bed hungry. Serato’s “Caterina’s Club” started serving them pasta dinners, and now he feeds nearly 200 children seven nights a week.
Derreck Kayongo (Atlanta, GA (birthplace: Uganda)): Since 2009, Kayongo and his Global Soap Project have collected 100 tons of partially used hotel soap and reprocessed it into more than 100,000 bars for communities in nine countries, including Haiti, Kenya and Uganda – for free.
Diane Latiker (Roseland (Chicago), IL): Youth gun violence runs especially rampant on Chicago’s South Side. Instead of hiding from it, Diane Latiker opened her doors to area kids in 2003 and started a community center in her living room. Today, the mother of eight has turned the building next door into a haven for youngsters.
Eddie Canales (Schertz, TX): In 2001, Canales watched as his son Chris, a high school senior, made a tackle during a football game that left him paralyzed. Just over a year later, he and Chris watched from the stands as another high school player went down with a spinal cord injury. That moment pushed Eddie Canales to start “Gridiron Heroes”, which provides emotional and financial support to high school football athletes who’ve sustained spinal cord injuries.
Elena Durón Miranda (Bariloche, Argentina): Elena Durón Miranda traveled to Argentina in 2001 to research impoverished communities. In 2002, she founded “P.E.T.I.S.O.S.” (Prevention and Eradication of Child Labor) to get children out of the garbage dump and into school. Today P.E.T.I.S.O.S. provides free after school programs and access to education, counseling and medical care to about 200 children.
Patrice Millet (Port-au-Prince, Haiti): After Patrice Millet was diagnosed with cancer, he dedicated his life to helping needy kids in his native Haiti. In 2007, he sold his business and started the “FONDAPS” youth soccer program, which has provided free equipment, coaching and food to hundreds of children from the slums of Port-au-Prince.
Robin Lim (Ubud, Bali, Indonesia (Birthplace: Arizona)): After her youngest sister died from pregnancy complications, Lim became a professional midwife and dedicated her life to offering free prenatal and birthing services to low-income Indonesian women.
Sal Dimicelli (Lake Geneva, WI): Raised in poverty, Sal Dimicelli vowed when he was 12 years old that he’d always help people in need, and he’s spent nearly all of his adult life making good on that promise.
Taryn Davis (Buda, TX): Taryn Davis’ husband died in Iraq when she was 21. Unable to find a community that could honor her husband’s memory and spirit in a way she could relate to, Taryn created one. Since 2007, her American Widow Project has connected 900 young military widows in a sisterhood that helps them honor their husbands while celebrating life.
