She doesn’t look much like a hero. With warm brown eyes and a welcoming smile, she has the demeanor of an old friend. But Lorinda Nicol, Health and Wellness Director at Clare Bridge Spokane, is a true hero and has been recognized as such.

Nicol recently received the Hero Award from the Assisted Living Federation of America (AFLA). The award honors workers in the assisted living sector who have shown extraordinary dedication, leadership and courage.

I’ll be darned if i have anything to say on my social networking site, which my friend Troy used to call My Face. At this rate, my profile photo is just about the extent of my presence. But just because I don’t have anything worthwhile to post right now doesn’t mean I can’t lurk about in other people’s business 

Relational conflict is a part of life. Family, friends and co-workers deal with daily disagreements, which often stem from simple misunderstandings. The frustration of being misunderstood can fuel the fire of many feuds.

As she beheld the sight of the snow-capped Himalayas from her airplane window, Myrtle Kaul couldn’t help but cry.

This was the homeland of the man she loved, a man she waited for more than 20 years to marry. It was also a place where she left a piece of her heart many years ago, when she worked as a missionary to India.

The words often bring tears to people’s eyes.

“I still have a dream—it is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream,” says the Rev. Percy “Happy” Watkins, invoking the famous words of the late Martin Luther King Jr. “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’”

On the surface, it appears to be two very different ways to spend a Sunday. Steve Wilson, executive pastor at Spokane Valley Church of the Nazarene, spends many Sundays at the Sullivan Road church, which is as big as a supermarket and ministers to about 2,000 people weekly.

Her face appears weekly on 114 Public Broadcasting Service stations. Her soft voice is more familiar than many local television and radio personalities. Yet Mary Ann Wilson, creator of the award-winning Sit and Be Fit exercise program, is one of the shyest celebrities around.

In 1995, after 27 years serving in numerous United Methodist churches in Washington and North Idaho, Sandpoint minister Paul Graves took a sabbatical. He had a question he wanted to answer: “Is there more to my vocation than just parish work?” In the 13 years since, he’s found there’s a lot more.

Out of public office for almost 15 years, Barnard remains in public eye with her service work. When Sheri Barnard ran for Spokane mayor almost 20 years ago, the burning question for voters revolved around trash.
Despite the momentum behind the creation of Spokane’s waste-to-energy plant in the late 1980s, Barnard was the lone voice in local government who opposed the project.

Spokane’s renowned gardener passes love of the earth to countless others.

Phyllis Stephens grew up playing in the dirt. From the time she was old enough to grasp a hand trowel, Spokane’s best-known garden expert was digging in the soil, planting seeds and harvesting vegetables that the family later served on the dinner table.

“Gardening was part of our life,” says Stephens, who lived on a farm on Spokane’s Five Mile Prairie until she was in second grade. “At our house, nothing came out of a box. We raised everything ourselves and never had to go to the grocery store for vegetables.”

Scott and Mary Lou Reed dedicate themselves to preserving North Idaho.

From a third-floor office in an old downtown Coeur d’Alene building, Mary Lou Reed can see Lake Coeur d’Alene, Tubbs Hill and a big evergreen tree growing tall on the edge of a large parking lot.