Local Heroes 2018 - Santa Barbara Independent

​

Local Heroes 2018 Santa Barbara Independent

In 1986, the first-ever issue of the Santa Barbara Independent was dedicated to showcasing the amazingly selfless people who call Santa Barbara home. We christened those honorees as our “Local Heroes,” and a Thanksgiving week tradition was born.

Today, 32 years and more than 1,600 issues later, this Local Heroes edition remains our proudest and most meaningful annual achievement. It’s our best effort to remind everyone that, despite the steady drumbeat of bad news, we are surrounded by neighbors who care and who put those cares into concrete action every day.

This year, in the wake of the Thomas Fire and the devastating 1/9 Debris Flow, we were presented with more stories of heroism than we’ve ever seen. So we honored as many of those first and second responders as we could on page 20, knowing that we’d never be able to capture each and every lifesaving and community-recovering tale.

But we also adhered to our usual format of honoring the hard work of people who were not part of those disasters. The Local Heroes class of 2018 features homeless advocates, dancers, lawn bowlers, librarians, grocery store employees, and many more of our neighbors who regularly put the lives and well-being of others in front of their own needs.

We’re proud to shine a light on all of these good works, and we hope that it inspires others to do the same.

Claude Dorais
Lighting Up the World
At 69 years old, Claude Dorais isn’t slowing down. In fact, he’s speeding up. Between long recumbent-bike rides around the county, the recently retired attorney hustles among three volunteer jobs. His Habitat for Humanity gig has him digging trenches, hauling rock, and pouring concrete for a Carpinteria housing project. At the Red Cross, he helps oversee logistics and a fundraising effort to buy a new emergency response vehicle. And for Unite to Light, as the nonprofit’s cofounder and a current boardmember, Dorais is an ambassador for the solar lamps and charger packs it distributes all over the world to people without access to electricity.

During his tenure as Unite to Light’s first president, Dorais helped distribute more than 50,000 lights, and since then...

Continue reading...