As we begin to gear up for the newspaper’s biggest annual project –Crossroads, published annually each Saturday in February – we would like for you to help us honor someone who does things for other people expecting no recognition but deserving a lot.

The newspaper’s staff met recently to plan the Crossroads project published in both the News Herald and the Gates County Index.

For the first time last year, we began, as a part of that project, honoring deserving area residents.

We will do that again this year, only more elaborately.

First, we’re going to recognize a Newsmaker of the Year.

A committee headed by Editor Cal Bryant will choose that person.

We’re also going to recognize a group of Unsung Heroes.

The best way for me to tell you what constitutes an Unsung Hero might be to tell you about two or three.

The lady who gives up attending her own Sunday School class so she can go to the nursing home and play the piano there on Sunday morning is an Unsung Hero.

The newspaper in Galveston, Texas, once recognized as Unsung Heroes a man and wife who, every Sunday morning, cooked breakfast at their house and, on tables set up in their front yard, served that meal to that city’s homeless people.

An Unsung Hero might be the guy down the street who, without ever saying anything or expecting any kind of reward, mows his neighbor’s yard while the neighbor is in the hospital for an extended time.

Maybe the members of the Rotary Club of Ahoskie are Unsung Heroes because they volunteer every week to deliver meals on wheels.

You get the idea…

And you know far better than I who are the Unsung Heroes of the four counties served by these newspapers.

We hope you’ll tell us.

You can nominate an Unsung Hero – or two or three – by simply writing us a letter about each one (or, if your nominees are a husband and wife, one letter about them both; or if your nomination is of a group, one letter about the group).

Tell us (1) why the person (or persons) you are nominating deserves the honor, (2) how we can get in touch with you if we need more information, and (3) how we can get in touch with the person you are nominating.

The recipients will be chosen by a committee I will chair. The committee will include members of the newspaper’s staff and community leaders.

We will honor those chosen for both honors – Newsmaker of the Year and Unsung Heroes – at a reception toward the end of the week before the first of our four Crossroads editions is published on Saturday, Feb. 6. To that reception, we will invite not only the honorees, but community leaders.

We also will recognize the honorees by including their stories – and their pictures – in a special part of our Crossroads project.

Don’t miss the chance to help honor someone deserving. Write your nomination letter today.

David Sullens is president of Roanoke-Chowan Publications LLC and publisher of the Roanoke-Chowan News Herald and the Gates County Index.