Who Is Your Hero?

Do you have a personal hero? Tell us about them. It doesn’t have to be perfect to make a difference in someone else’s life.

Your Everyday Hero: Eric S.

Last Friday the most amazing thing happened to me. For several months I had been training with my sister to run a half-marathon. It was my sister's first half marathon and both of us decided to use the race as an opportunity to raise money for causes we cared about. My sister raised money for cancer research and I raised money to start a scholarship fund for my friend's daughter, Clementine, whose mother had passed away earlier this year.

To create a little extra incentive for my friends and family to donate, I promised to run all 13.1 miles in a banana costume if they helped me reach my goal of $2000 by race day. As it turns out, the day before the race I was stuck at $1987 — $13 short of my goal. So I did what any normal, rational banana runner would do – I put on my banana costume and took to the streets of Los Angeles to hand out fliers asking for donations.

My goal in this endeavor was simply to raise the final $13. But what happened instead was nothing short of amazing. I ran in the banana costume from Venice Beach to the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica and back. While the great majority of people looked at me like I was crazy, one guy smiled at my ridiculousness and told me that I had 'just made his day.' Later that night I looked at my fundraising page to see if anyone had donated, and there was a $500 donation sitting in the account from a man named Eric Silver, whom I had never met.

To say the least, on that Friday afternoon Eric Silver made my day– no, that's a huge understatement. Eric Silver made my 2008. I don't know who he is or why he decided to give so generously to a stranger, but if anyone reading this knows Eric Silver, please let him know that BananaMan says 'thank you' from the bottom of my heart.

Story was submitted anonymously