Every year this city and region benefit from thousands of people who give their time, money and talents to make this area a more compassionate, prosperous and livable place. For more than two decades, the Observer’s editorial board has acknowledged those notable acts through the examples of a few. We thank those we’re highlighting today for their good works and commitment They represent many others whose spirit and generosity have enriched this region and inspire us as we begin the New Year.

Thelma Reynolds
If you’re homeless, Thelma Reynolds is exactly the kind of person you want on your side. For two decades, the social worker has tirelessly helped provide emergency housing for those in need – a number that keeps climbing in Charlotte. Homelessness jumped 21 percent in 2011. Reynolds has worked for Charlotte Emergency Housing, as its interim executive director, and most recently as resident services coordinator. She says she’s inspired by the families who’ve sought help. “They are so awesome, so resilient. They have so much inner strength. They’re what feed my soul.” She’s also motivated by the supportive colleagues she’s had at Charlotte Emergency Housing. “The social workers, house managers and support staff are all in their own ways such amazingly passionate advocates for and supporters of the families we serve, and they have kept me challenged and motivated and are equally deserving of recognition.” Charlotte Emergency Housing merged with two other housing groups this summer – WISH and Family Promise – to become Charlotte Family Housing to better serve the homeless. Reynolds is working with the new group as a consultant.

Cate Martin
Cate Martin is a go-getter. She doesn’t stand back and observe. She gets involved. That’s what she’s done in her community. As president of the Merry Oaks Neighborhood Association she’s led efforts to clean up the neighborhood, plant a butterfly garden and do numerous other things as part of a “Hands-On Merry Oaks” project she originated. She and other residents in this neighborhood between Eastway Drive and Briar Creek Road off Central Avenue are models for others in keeping a community strong and vibrant. But Martin also has an avocation that has reached past her neighborhood. She does volunteer dog rescue work, fostering dogs for the North Mecklenburg Animal Rescue. That work isn’t pleasant sometimes. It has brought her in contact with dogs badly abused and clinging to life. But Martin’s compassion and love helps them recover and find homes. Her passion and work ethic is worth emulating.

Candace Curlin Vance
These days Candace Curlin Vance is juggling new mom duties with work. She gave birth a few months ago. But that hasn’t halted her enthusiasm for something else she “birthed” – the Turning Pages Book Club for the homeless. She got the idea after seeing a TV program about a Boston book club targeting the homeless. She convinced The Charlotte Mecklenburg Library her idea was worthwhile, and now the book club meets Tuesday mornings at the uptown branch. Participants – not all are homeless – read a book a month. But as important is this: They get to share personal feelings in a place “where they can be uplifted,” Vance has said. The book club allows Vance to combine her desire to help others – a humanitarian bent she got from seeing her mother do the same – with her love of reading. It has also provided an unexpected yet immensely valuable way to help the homeless. She has helped give them a voice.

Ron Leeper and Men Who Care Global
Businessman Ron Leeper was doing his Bible study one morning last year after uptown Memorial Day festivities in Charlotte left one black youth dead and others injured and arrested. He stopped reading, he said, and started writing down names. “It hit me that the African American community needed to play a more substantial role in the lives of young black males.” Thus was born Men Who Care Global. The names on his list became a nucleus of black men who committed to get involved with the lives of young black males and model the behavior they want them to emulate. More than 200 showed up for July Fourth activities. They’ve remained in touch with youths they met. They will be on hand for New Year’s Eve First Night festivities and plan ongoing mentoring, education and workforce initiatives.

Ashley Armistead and Lori Klingman
Ashley Armistead (right) knew the value of running – mentally and physically. She’s a runner herself. She also knew the impact it could have on children, having volunteered as a coach for Girls on the Run, an acclaimed running program started in Charlotte and designed to boost girls’ self-esteem. But why was there no program for boys, she wondered. They need emotional and physical help too – “to be strengthened on the inside and outside,” she said. So two years ago, she started Let Me Run, a running club for fourth-grade through middle-school-age boys. She and vice president Lori Klingman run the program that’s had 891 boys in Charlotte’s private and public schools participate. Those working with the boys say the impact is visible. Boys transform from passive participants into leaders. They develop a healthy outlook for fitness and real confidence in themselves.

Clair Lane and Our Foundation for Children
This has been an off year for Clair Lane and Our Foundation for Children. The nonprofit that aims to help keep families together by providing books, food, clothing and toys for needy families was only able to give 225 bags of food and 700 toys this year. It gave 550 bags of food and 1,200 toys last year. “The bad economy,” Lane said in explanation. But that’s still about double what the group provided through donations when it began in Charlotte in 2003. Lane, who founded the group while she lived in New York, brought it here when she moved here and met community activist Thereasea Elder whose community needed assistance. Now the former social worker is actively engaged in helping at-risk kids all around Charlotte – giving school supplies at the start of the school year and sponsoring 12 teachers at Ridge Road Middle School to provide resources that they’ve requested in addition to the food, toys and clothing given at Christmas time. “Someone is always in need,” she said. Lane and Our Foundation for Children have admirably stepped up to help meet those needs.

Jerry McGee
Wingate University President Jerry McGee will be a tough act to follow when he retires in 2014. A native of Roberdale, a small town outside of Rockingham, McGee views his leadership role as much broader than the school’s campus limits. His imprint and that of Wingate University have been felt all over Union County and in Charlotte’s southern suburbs where the university’s pharmacy school and school of health sciences is having an impact on medical care. McGee sees his work as the first chairman of the Union County Partners for Progress as among his most important. “It was a nitty-gritty chance to help shape the long-term future of this community.” Married with two sons, he says that as head of the university – he’s in his 20th year there – he felt “obligated to take an active role in the community.” After all, he said, he expects the community to support the university. The relationship should be “reciprocal.”

Aimee Norman
As head of outreach at Christ Episcopal Church, Aimee Norman has had plenty of opportunities to help others. But no one does it with more gusto and inspiring perseverance, friends and acquaintances say. Even now as she battles cancer, she has continued to provide assistance to nonprofits all over the city, ranging from Crisis Assistance Ministry to the Men’s Shelter to Charlotte Family Housing, which provides housing services for the homeless. Last year she even drove a load of Christmas presents to the needy in Tennessee. Married with two daughters, her selfless acts to help others have been awe-inspiring.