This entry was posted on Thursday, November 15th, 2012at 11:27 am by anadmin

What is Local Heroes?

It’s fair to say that there are some pretty awesome people in the world. There are some fairly terrible people too, but they’re not getting a mention here, because they don’t deserve it. As you’d expect, as Active Nation, we want to talk about those of a sporting nature, and boy, are there some special ones.

Within every community there are special individuals. They might be a dedicated sports leader or coach, volunteering their services to do something good for their local area, selflessly giving up their time to help others. They might be a successful sports star from the local area competing in international competition, or a youngster with great potential. Or they might be something in between. They can be any age and come from any walk of life. In any case, they are people who inspire, people who are loved, people who really deserve to be associated with the term ‘legend’, a word that it is, let’s face it, used a little too often these days.

However, so many of these brilliant people are never recognised properly for the fantastic what they do. This makes us very sad. And so we created this, our Local Heroes scheme.

Local Heroes is our way of saluting and applauding these great people. It’s about providing a place where we can display and celebrate all the terrific contributions and achievements that these people make to sport and exercise in their community. This comes in the form of prominent display boards in Active Nation-run leisure facilities – each Local Hero appearing on the board in their local centre – and on this good old website, joining our online Local Heroes community. Each Local Hero is bestowed the title of Active Nation Ambassador, a prestigious honour indeed.

We hope that by recognising Local Heroes in such a way it can inspire people to do something brilliant themselves. If someone sees the story of a successful local talent – whatever level they are competing at, and whatever age – they may well be encouraged to take up the sport, or participate further in it, themselves. People just might be touched by the tale of someone in their community’s great contribution to local sport and exercise, encouraging them to do something similarly positive for their community. And this can only be a good thing, right?

It’s pretty inspirational to hear of someone who does great things for your community, so do have a look around these pages and look out for the big silhouette boards in our centres. You’ll find some incredible people, so you’re bound to be encouraged to get involved in sport and exercise yourself!

And if you happen to know of anyone who you reckon fits the bill, why not nominate them as a Local Hero? Use the link to give them the recognition they deserve. You never know, you might just indirectly inspire someone to get active, and then you can feel good about yourself, which will be nice.