Every year in early May, someone from the editorial team asks me to write a column coinciding with our special “thank you” pages.

We’ve done a lot of great work in the Teacher Appreciation realm over the years, thankfully offering an opportunity to reflect on personal mentors, those who influenced my kids, and even the young adults with brand-new diplomas ready to see their own names outside a classroom door.

This year, the focus shifts slightly to Everyday Heroes, understood as people who are outsized givers, be that volunteer work, founders of new helpful efforts or committed to communities above and beyond normal expectations. That sounds a little vague at first blush, but that’s a feature, not a bug, because it provides a chance to tell new stories and remind all readers that far away from politics, crime and corruption are countless people who just want to make things a little better than they found them.

Longtime readers know the bulk of my volunteering time goes to youth sports. I’ve coached one son for the last four seasons, taken tens of thousands of photos and run the umpire program for our Little League. This isn’t a story about me, but the people I meet along those journeys.

Like the guy in the other dugout who doesn’t have kids on the team but coaches year after year anyway, because the program needs the help. Ot the mom with her own camera at the gymnastics meet who snaps every athlete on her son’s team and also hand-made the coaches’ ugly holiday sweaters. Or, from my spot on the Little League board, coordinating installation of memorial plaques around the park as the community deals with the loss of someone who never met a stranger.

My favorite day each April is the community scholarship breakfast at the high school, as dozens of organizations gather to honor outstanding seniors. We celebrate their success, but we also hope to sow seeds for those who can someday take our places, wherever they land, continuing the cycle of finding a little corner of life in which to make a difference.

I operate in a pretty small geographic circle, and even so, there are names I’ll never know, people who shaped the future because it was the right thing to do at the time. Or those who plug away, purposefully avoiding attention so they can keep focus where it belongs.

If you’re reading this, chances are pretty good you know someone who fits that description, and I’d love to help share their stories. Email me a few sentences about who these heroes are and how they make a difference.

Or just thank them privately, quietly. Gratitude is powerful.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.