THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 7, 1995 TAG: 9511070274
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Charlise Lyles
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
We've heard a lot of preaching in the past year or so about how not to choose our heroes.
I need not remind you of a certain incident involving a former football player that prompted TV and newspaper pontificating on the subject.
Now, the Atlanta Committee for the 100th Olympic Games is giving us a golden opportunity to test our improved hero-selection skills.
The committee is seeking community heroes to carry the Olympic Torch on its 84-day, 15,000-mile journey across America.
You can nominate any one you like, including yourself. And arrangements can be made for torchbearers with disabilities.
The chosen must carry the 3 1/2-pound torch up to one kilometer (about five-eighths of a mile). The relay starts in Los Angeles April 27. Runners hit the finish line July 19, the eve of the Games.
The Olympic route will run through Richmond, bypassing Hampton Roads. So winners will likely go to the capital to bear their share of the torch.
United Way agencies are assisting the selection process. For an entry form, call United Way in Norfolk at 629-0500, WAVY-TV 10 at 393-1010 or 1-800-496-COKE to receive a form by mail.
Entries require a 100-word essay telling what makes your nominee worthy. Or you can simply list the qualifications on an 8 1/2- by 11-inch sheet of paper.
Who's worthy?
As you choose your torchbearer, bear this in mind: ``The true hero is often not at all dashing,'' said Daisaku Ikeda, a Japanese Buddhist thinker, ``but a very humble, unassuming figure.''
I'd like to nominate L'Tanya Quarles. She would bear the torch on behalf of the Friends of Hampton Roads.
The group of professional women is hellbent on helping local youths.
In 1989, its first benefit gala raised $3,150 in scholarships for three high school seniors. To date, FORH has raised a total of $59,000 in awards for 42 students.
The list of its kind and diligent commitment to community runs long:
An annual rites of passage program for girls, ages 12 to 15.
Tutoring at schools in at-risk areas.
Book donations to school libraries.
Clothing donations to battered women's shelter.
Holiday food donations to the needy.
A cadre of businesswomen, dentists, doctors, lawyers and other professionals, Friends has also presented career day programs at Norfolk State University.
This year's scholarship ball, with an ``An Evening in Paris'' theme, goes off Saturday at the Omni International Hotel in Norfolk.
A black-tie evening of cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, dinner, an ethnic art auction, live music, cash bar and casino begins at 6:30 p.m. and goes to 2 a.m. - way past my bedtime. Donation is $50.
Sounds like a PARTY to me!
Quarles, a registered nurse and Old Dominion University exercise science student, is ready to run.
``I'm definitely willing to carry the torch,'' Quarles said. ``You just give me the time and the place, and I'll start getting in shape now to make sure it gets where it's going.'' MEMO: Mail your nomination to: The 1996 Olympic Torch Relay Torchbearer
Selection, P.O. Box 6621, Maple Plain, MN, 55593-6621. Postmark by Nov.
30.
by CNB