What does it mean to be a hero? Funk & Wagnalls's 1940 College Dictionary defines a hero/heroine as anyone regarded as having displayed great courage or exceptionally noble qualities; from classical mythology, a person of apparently superhuman powers, valor or achievement.

This month Senior News is featuring a number of unsung heroes in our community-men and women who live their daily lives with valor and achievement, many whom are known only to family members and a few others. Because of space and time, this grouping of special people is arbitrary and incomplete. We all know - or might be ourselves - heroes in our own realms.

For instance, we at Senior News consider our advertisers as heroes. Some of them - 25 local companies - have advertised every month with us since before I became editor in 1994, 75 issues ago. We have made an advertisement naming them and thanking them for their support. We also consider our volunteer distributors our personal heroes. Each month these 16 men and women personally take hundreds of copies of our paper to their local restaurants, stores and public buildings, all in a timely fashion. Their names are listed on page 2.

Who have we selected to tell you about this time?

* Dr. Wendy Ring in our front page story said she doesn't want all the credit for her Mobile Medical Office-the true unsung heroes, she said, are her staff and volunteers who work with her.

* Fran Davis (page 8) takes care of the Senior Resource Center gardens and our building and has met and greeted untold numbers of people in her seven years at HSRC.

* Joe Parker (this page) is a phenomenon in the Senior Firewood Program. He is a volunteer who personally delivers more than 100 cords of wood to seniors who buy their wood through the Sheriff's Work Alternative Program.

* Jim Boal (next page) has just retired again, this time after a 20-year volunteer career with the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) where he and his compatriot Lenney Demmer build handicap ramps for low income seniors through the Redwood Community Action Agency.

* The Living Legacies project (next page) draws together young folks and oldsters to tell the stories of our Northcoast logging heritage. Their report is on the Smithsonian web site.

* Senior Resource Center staff members from the Nutrition, Social Services and Adult Day Health programs are sung on page 9. We appreciate Mary Scott who draws the daily cartoon corner about her lovable mutt Pookie and his unique view of life. A shy gal, Mary would only come to the photo session in mask.

* Sharon McKinney of Crescent City honors her local Senior Citizens on Patrol program, of which she is a proud member. * Barbara Ogden of the McKinleyville Senior Center finds a unique handful of unsung heroes to sing this month.

* Judge Charles Thomas is featured on page 16, a pillar of the community in so many ways.

* St. Joseph Hospital's chaplaincy training program and its heart-ful volunteers are featured on page 17.

Barbara Clark is editor of Senior News.

Joe Parker

This year when the seniors go to the firewood lot to pick up their cords of wood, they'll see Joe Parker with a new sign on his truck: Senior Delivery Service. The Sheriff's Work Alternative Program (SWAP) last year doubled the size of the wood lot that this year will deliver an estimated 600 cords of wood. The new space gives Joe Parker a place to drive his truck straight to what the guys are calling "Joe's stack," a massive loose mountain of cut wood that will ultimately sort itself out into more than 100 cords.

Parker started doing this in 1992 when he was asked to take a cord to his high school buddy's mom in Blue Lake. "I hauled a cord of wood to her, and he bought the gas," Parker said. "Then," he added, "I became eligible for a cord myself."

The SWAP firewood is available to low and moderate income seniors age 60 and older who use firewood as their primary source of heat. It is cut, stacked and loaded for seniors and for Parker by the county jail inmates who have been sentenced to community service in lieu of jail time.

Parker said when he came for his own stack, other people working in the wood lot asked him if he could deliver to them. Finally it was arranged through the Humboldt Senior Resource Center which manages the voucher distribution that Parker would be an independent contractor, delivering the cords for an agreed-upon low fee. Also he delivers a certain number of cords for HSRC social services clients for free, and then he will get to take one for himself to sell. "That gets my gas money back," he explained. Of course, with gasoline prices up so high this year, even his low fees will have to creep up, he said.

"I make sure people get a good cord," he said. "If they're not happy, the sheriff's office has to go out and check the cord, and that costs money."

Parker worked for Simpson Timber for 37 years, retiring in 1985. He had bought a small dump truck to take to the hills to pick up his own wood. "That's what many of these people were doing until they couldn't go get their own wood any more," he said. "I give free wood to a couple of people who can't afford to buy any. I kinda keep an eye on one guy every couple of months."

When I think of heroes in our community, I think of men like Joe Parker. He will make more than 100 trips with cords of wood between Aug. 14 and the middle of September when all the wood has been collected.

"I try to have a good day and enjoy it," Parker said. "If I didn't enjoy it, I don't want to do it."

Jim Boal and Lenney Demmer

These two heroes have been a matched set since 1994 when Demmer joined the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program to help build ramps with Boal. Since that time Demmer has built more than 50 handicap ramps. Jim Boal just retired from RSVP after serving for 20 years. In that time he has built more than 200 ramps.

Even though he's retired, Boal still drives his car to the construction sites to bring the tools to Demmer.

"Neither one of us wanted to be paid for handicap work," Boal explained. "I had a pretty good retirement and Social Security. I like to help people, particularly handicapped people."

Boal retired from McDonnell Douglas Aircraft. He said that a seventh heart attack in 1999 and increasingly severe glaucoma has changed his life-style, although he is still designing ramps. His wife Sylvia now does much of his driving. He's active with the Breakfast Exchange Club, a service club that works to prevent child abuse and contributes to the victim witness program. He's also busy adding a bedroom and bath to his wife's house-two of the baths are handicap accessible.

Lenney Demmer is a retired Navy electrical engineer and a Vietnam veteran. He also volunteers for the Trinity Lutheran Church-he spent time at summer camp washing dishes for the crowd and maintains the church's landscaping. He's a member of the Lutheran Brotherhood, a service organization of the denomination. Demmer is a graduate of Eureka High School and grandson of Joe Worthington, for whom Worthington School in Eureka is named.