As usual, we’re starting the nomination process with an appeal to our readers. We’re looking for people who work tirelessly, sometimes anonymously, to make this a better community. Some count their impact by the thousands of lives their work touches, others by their rapid response to an emergency. We’ve celebrated the success of innovative and well-executed ideas, and acknowledged dogged refusals to give up on problems written off as unsolvable.

Among past honorees are well-known names such as Gary Cain, who capped a splendid 28-year run as CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of Central Florida in early 2023. We’ve recognized IDignity founder Michael Dippy, who saw the barriers that kept homeless people from obtaining legal identification needed to get them back their feet; Deirdre Macnab, whose tireless advocacy as president of the League of Women Voters of Florida protected critical rights; and the team that fought, on one terrible night, to save the lives of those shot in the Pulse nightclub massacre.

Please help us find the people who deserve this honor for 2023. You can send nominations via email at insight@orlandosentinel.com; please include CFOTY in the subject line and get your recommendations to us by Nov. 27.

We’ll consider groups of people, and you can also send multiple nominations or self-nominations; for each nominee, please include a description of why you think they should be honored, along with your own contact information for any questions.

“Gary Cain’s impact on children who needed a break in life cannot be overstated,” said Julie Anderson, editor in chief of the Orlando Sentinel. “His achievement of building up the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida into one of the most successful in the country had to be recognized before he retired, and so we are pleased to make him this year’s Central Floridian of the Year.”

Cain was selected for the honor — first presented by the Sentinel in 1983 — among four other deserving finalists, including a nationally recognized leader in the fight against homelessness; a young educator who is using her social-media savvy to boost knowledge about Black health; a trailblazing entrepreneur who sees the economic potential in welcoming Spanish-speaking workers and the forward-thinking CEO who has grown a Seminole County charity into a beacon of hope and healing.

A lifetime of service

It’s easy to paint Cain’s leadership in numbers. Last year, the six-county Boys & Girls Clubs region he heads served more than 11,000 children. Of those, 98% completed the school year and were promoted to the next grade; 94% of high-school seniors graduated on time and 87% of those graduates have enrolled in post-secondary education or enlisted in the military. A 2013 economic-impact study estimated that access to safe, no-cost or very low-cost child care at the club allowed (no their) parents to bring home more than $90 million in additional income — and 45% of parents interviewed for that study say that access to clubs helped them keep their jobs.

One more number: 28. That’s how long Cain has served as CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida, an extraordinary tenure that has given him a deep and wide-ranging understanding of children’s lives in all corners of his far-flung region and an innate understanding of what these children — most of them from low-income households — really need. And as he frequently reminds people, the entire journey started with one child: Himself, at the age of 11, walking into a North Florida Boys and Girls Club in desperate need of someplace to belong, where he felt safe and welcome.

It’s an extraordinary achievement — one that Joe Sullivan, CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Volusia/Flagler Counties, can appreciate more than most: He was head of the Pine Hills club when Cain first took over in Central Florida — and watched him surge into a position of national prominence for his accomplishments here. “He’s a major leader. He’s made us all look good,” Sullivan said.

We also want to recognize the other finalists for this year’s honor:

Martha Are, executive director of the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida. Under her leadership, this umbrella organization brings in millions of dollars in grants from private organizations along with state and federal funding — a little-seen and often thankless task, but one that’s been essential in funding dozens of service organizations who provide meals, shelter and other aid to this area’s most vulnerable residents.

Rebecca Desir, a health educator who saw a gap between the area’s Black residents and the accurate health information they needed to get through the COVID crisis. Searching for ways to reach them, she founded the Black Health Commission and oversaw the launch of the Black Joy Festival. But it’s her social-media savvy that shines: Desir has drawn national attention for her ability to tie current events to accurate health information, in a way that’s getting noticed by some of the nation’s leading public health figures.

Sami Haiman-Marrero, who looked at Spanish-speaking residents flowing to Central Florida from Puerto Rico and outside the country and realized there was a huge untapped treasure in newcomers who could not find work, even though many of them had advanced degrees and professional skills. To help companies see that potential, she founded a consulting firm — Urbander — and has invested her seemingly boundless energy into two nonprofits as well: SOS Urbander, which offers free seminars and other activities for workers relocating to Central Florida; and Casa Culture, which provides creative space for a wide range of arts activities.

Nina Yon, a former hospitality-industry executive who left a life in exotic locales for a life of service —- first as an aid worker in Guatemala, then as head of the Sharing Center in Sanford. Under her leadership, the charity has greatly expanded the range of services it offers poverty-stricken and homeless residents; many credit her calm, businesslike approach as the key to the Sharing Center’s extraordinary growth. As a result, many more residents are getting services they need —- and the depth of the need in suburban Seminole County is being taken more seriously.

He was just five when his father, legendary New York Knicks coach Joe Lapchick, drafted one of the three Black players to break the color line in the NBA — making his family home a target for those who wanted to preserve segregation in sports. As a teenager, he decided he was going to devote his life to battling racism and other forms of discrimination.

It’s a fight Lapchick — who retired as the chair of UCF’s DeVos Sport Business Management Program in 2021 — is still up for.

Right after being named the Orlando Sentinel’s Central Floridian of the Year, he leaned toward the microphone with an impish grin and said: “Gay. Gay. Gay.” He wasn’t coming out of the closet — he was expressing solidarity with Floridians outraged by yesterday’s passage of a bill that bans discussion of sexual orientation in classrooms.

That intersection of a lifelong career spent battling racism, and a still-burning passion for justice, made him the right choice for this year’s honor, Sentinel editors agreed.

Other finalists honored at Wednesday’s breakfast included an attorney who crafted a unique approach to fighting over-development; a Lake County woman who successfully battled a move to bring a Confederate statue to the Tavares courthouse; a homeless advocate who took services to the streets; and a leader of multiple organizations meant to break down barriers for non-English speakers.

Over his career, Lapchick stood shoulder-to-shoulder with people whose names are easily recognized: Nelson Mandela, who invited Lapchick to his 1996 presidential inauguration in recognition of two decades of work fighting apartheid. Kofi Annan, who worked with Lapchick on a fight to expel a bank with strong financial ties to South Africa from the United Nations plaza. And two lifelong friends who Lapchick met as a teenager: Muhammad Ali and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

His work led him to a teaching position at Northeastern University, where he founded the National Consortium for Academics and Sports. In 2001, (at the behest of his wife, Ann, who wanted to move to Central Florida) he became the first director of the DeVos program, and then founded The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. He’ll continue as the director of TIDES, which is nationally known for its annual by-the-numbers reports on racial and gender divisions in the sporting world.

He may be the only academic to inspire a fan page (lapchickinspiredme.blogspot.com). Through the dozens of testimonials on that site, it’s clear he’s worked to instill that same passion for equity in his students. Current events — like this year’s debates over the anti-gay bill as well as one meant to ban the teaching of critical race theory, along with last year’s legislation targeting transgender athletes — show him that the battle is far from over, he said.

“I define a leader as someone who steps up for justice and doesn’t block its path,” he said. “If children have learned how to hate, we can teach them how to love.”

He wasn’t the only one honored at Wednesday’s event who felt that way. In naming the other finalists for the award, the Sentinel recognized people who had shown extraordinary commitment to their communities:

Finalist Steven Meyers, a Maitland attorney, is blazing a new path in environmental law that might help save some of Central Florida’s environmental treasures from development. He helped draft Orange County’s 2020 “rights of nature” charter amendment, approved by a staggering 89% of votes cast. Last year, he used that language to file suit against a major development in east Orange County — naming water bodies as his clients. He’s also asking the court to invalidate a law — passed before voters could even weigh in on the amendment — that cancels a local government’s ability to grant legal rights to natural elements like rivers and lakes.

Last year, finalist Mae Hazelton saw the culmination of a long battle to keep the statue of Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith from being installed in the Lake County Courthouse. The statue had been displayed in the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center as part of the Statuary Hall collection. After Florida leaders decided it should be replaced with the image of civil-rights pioneer and educator Mary McLeod Bethune, Lake County leaders secretly struck an agreement that would have put Smith’s bronze likeness in the Tavares courthouse. Hazelton led a successful fight to expose, and then reverse, that decision — and celebrated victory when Bethune’s statue was revealed over the summer.

Finalist Marucci Guzmán earned recognition for her tireless advocacy and — at times — brute force applied to breaking down language and cultural barriers for non-English speaking Central Floridians. She heads three organizations — Latino Leadership, focused on the needs of the Central Florida Latino community; Santiago & Friends, which targets families of autistic children; and Clínica Mi Salud, a free clinic providing primary medical care and mental health care to the Latino population. During the COVID pandemic, she insisted on better education and messaging that crossed language barriers.

Finalist Eric Camarillo founded a unique program — SALT Outreach — that takes services such as showers and laundry to homeless people in areas where they live. Over the years, SALT has grown from a small, volunteer-only organization to one with substantial funding and resources. Local advocates praised the group for its hard work during the COVID epidemic, distributing food and other necessities to the homeless after meal sites and other resources shut down. It recently started a housing program that rehabilitates shipping containers for residential use.

“This past year was especially challenging because the world turned upside down,” Sentinel Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson said. “The Central Floridian of the year program gives us a unique opportunity to take a moment to celebrate the good happening in Central Florida and beyond.”

When we asked our readers to help us choose the 2022 Central Floridian of the Year, many were eager to tell us about those heroes — people they looked up to, who were making a difference. Reading those nominations was inspiring, as it is every year. We had difficult choices to make. There were so many who would have been excellent choices.

This is an annual award, however, meant to honor the bright lights who helped Central Florida navigate 2021’s turbulent 12 months.

We were looking for more than just the right people. We sought the right people, at the right time. Our five finalists couldn’t be more different — but each one stepped up when they were needed.

Those finalists are:

Eric Camarillo

Camarillo looked beyond the daunting statistics of this area’s growing homeless population and saw people struggling without bare necessities that many of us take for granted — a hot shower, or somewhere to wash clothes. Having endured a period of homelessness himself, the UCF student understood the isolation and humiliation they faced every day. So Camarillo decided to take necessary services into the streets where they lived. To accomplish that goal, he founded SALT Outreach with a handful of volunteers.

That was 10 years ago. Now SALT Outreach has hundreds of volunteers and a $1 million budget. Last year it played a critical role as COVID ravaged the homeless population.

“When everyone else was closing down and staying home, Eric and his team were the ones that ran toward the problem,” Lisa Portelli, senior advisor to Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer on homelessness, told the Sentinel’s Jennifer Marcial Ocasio.

Camarillo treats his accomplishments with great modesty. But this organization helps make life better for hundreds of local residents just trying to survive – and is spreading its mission as far away as Daytona Beach and Tampa. It’s a success story that is just beginning.

Mae Hazelton

For Hazelton, who successfully led the charge to keep Lake County from accepting and displaying a bronze statue of a Confederate general that once stood in the U.S. Capitol, this past year has given her the chance to savor victory. The statue she rallied against was transported to Tallahassee this year, months after and the glorious new marble likeness of famed Daytona Beach educator and civil-rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune was unveiled on its way to the nation’s Statuary Hall.

It was a sweet coda for Hazelton, who first learned of secretive plans to display the statue of Confederate General Kirby Smith in the Tavares courthouse in 2018. She was furious: Having grown up in Lake County, she knew this was the same courthouse where one of Florida’s most notorious race-driven episodes played out, the sham trial of innocent men known as the Groveland Four. Channeling her anger into action, she achieved something remarkable: A consensus that Lake County officials had made a mistake and a resolve that Lake County wouldn’t repeat the mistakes of the past.

Steven Meyer

Like Hazelton, Maitland attorney Meyer was first drawn into battle by something that turned his stomach — the 2015 state-sanctioned hunt that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Florida bears. He contacted those protesting the bear hunt and then filed suit,, arguing that state wildlife officials didn’t have the authority to allow the hunt. Just like that, he had picked up a new, part-time and unpaid job: He’d become the lawyer for Central Florida’s raccoons, wood storks, indigo snake; its marshes, rivers and streams.

In 2020, Meyer was instrumental in drafting the Orange County charter amendment meant to preserve the rights of the water bodies that support wildlife — a way to push back against pollution and over-development. The Legislature struck before voters could even weigh in, passing a law outlawing local “rights of nature” amendments. (A few months later, voters approved it by a whopping 89 percent anyway.)

Once again, Meyers did what lawyers do: In May 2021, he filed suit last year to block a massive planned development in East Orange County — and named several local water bodies as his clients. His suit also strikes back against the Legislature, asking a judge to declare that lawmakers are illegally nullifying local governments’ rights. This is the first lawsuit of its kind in Florida, and perhaps in the nation — but if he loses this time, Meyers says, he’ll keep coming back.

Richard Lapchick

Richard Lapchick, the son of a legendary NBA coach who broke the league’s racial barriers and received death threats as a result, gained a thirst for racial justice at a young age. He was just a teenager when he started fighting himself, stepping in to defend a Black player at a basketball camp. That player, then called Lew Alcindor, is now known as NBA hall of famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and is still a friend.

That episode helped set Lapchick on the path to a lifelong career fighting racial and gender injustice — focusing on the intersection of bigotry and sports. He’s been brutally beaten and his family threatened. That didn’t stop him — or dull his growing reputation as a trusted advisor to world leaders and legendary sports figures.

In 2002, he came to the University of Central Florida to lead the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program — and soon founded The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) which issues closely watched report cards tracking patterns of under-representation and exclusion. In late 2021, he announced he’s stepping down from his academic role, he plans to continue his activism. That’s good: The world

needs him.

Marucci Guzman

Guzman described herself to the Sentinel’s Jennifer Marcial Ocasio as a “professional beggar.” A better title might be one-woman whirlwind. As Central Florida’s Hispanic population grows — and grows and grows — she has seen more people separated from services they need by a language barrier. And she’s determined to fix that.

She’s currently head of three organizations: Latino Leadership, which serves the Central Florida Latino community; Clínica Mi Salud, a clinic that provides mental health and medical services to non-English speakers and a center for families of autistic children.

We wouldn’t be surprised to see her taking on additional causes — and drawing more people to her cause. As many local officials have learned, she can be a fiercely effective advocate who is quick to spring into action in the face of a crisis, such as the 2017 hurricane that devastated Puerto Rico.

Guzman’s parents left Puerto Rico for Florida when she was three, which makes many of these fights local for her – and that happened again in 2021. When her mother was hospitalized with COVID, she stepped up her lobbying for additional informational resources for non-English speakers.

Who knows what she’ll tackle next? But one thing is clear: She intends to push until she sees progress. It’s the kind of advocacy Central Florida needs.

Coming Wednesday: Our pick

As you can see, each of the finalists merits recognition and acclaim. Over the past year, and more, they have seen problems and found innovative ways to address them. They took on tough fights because they couldn’t bear to stand on the sidelines. And they were relentless in their advocacy, inspiring others to rally.

Wednesday we’ll honor each of them — and name one as Central Floridian of the Year. We hope readers find their stories inspirational, and a reminder that this area is home to extraordinary people, doing extraordinary things, every day. (Limited tickets remain; if you’d like to attend, email Opinion editor Krys Fluker at kfluker@orlandosentinel.com or visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/central-floridian-of-the-year-awards-breakfast-tickets-224022917577?aff=ebdssbdestsearch)

The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Krys Fluker, Jennifer A. Marcial Ocasio, Jay Reddick and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Contact us at insight@orlandosentinel.com.

“It was like being at war,” said Dr. Herman Gaztambide-Rodriguez, a pulmonary and critical care physician at Orlando Health-Health Central Hospital in Ocoee. “The amount of suffering seen by health-care workers this year equals a lifetime.”

For their selflessness, dedication and efforts to heal during the historic COVID-19 pandemic, those workers were named the 2020 Central Floridians of the Year by the Orlando Sentinel’s Editorial Board Thursday night, topping a group of “extraordinary” finalists.

“Twenty-twenty will always be remembered as the year of the pandemic,” said Sentinel Opinion Editor Mike Lafferty, who led the board’s selection process, which included nominations from readers. “Doctors and nurses and other front-line health-care workers … they had to go in and face the unknown every day. They faced the prospect of getting infected themselves and even carrying the infection home to their families. But they showed up … and they saved lives.”

The award was earned not only by those with a string of academic abbreviations in their titles, noted Dr. Rebecca Gomez, a hospitalist and chair of the Internal Medicine Department for AdventHealth Orlando, but also by those who rarely get glory.

“Every person in health care has been affected by this pandemic,” she told the ceremony’s virtual audience, “from the respiratory therapists to environmental services workers, food service workers and lab techs, to those working the front desk at the hospital and the parking valets.”

The award to a group rather than an individual is not unprecedented. Since the tribute began in 1983 as the Floridian of the Year, it has happened several other times — in 2001, when it went to the national champion Apopka Little League team; in 2003, to the Central Floridians who fought in Iraq; in 2007, to Catholic nuns Cathy Gorman, Ann Kendrick, Gail Grimes and Teresa McElwee for helping the poor; and in 2016, to the emergency medicine and trauma teams at Orlando Regional Medical Center for their extraordinary efforts to save lives after the Pulse nightclub shootings.

But all of this year’s finalists, Lafferty said, were particularly worthy for their work to help, inspire and heal others.

They included:

Florida Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, who worked around the clock to help citizens desperately trying to navigate the state’s broken unemployment compensation system and rescue families threatened with homelessness. Many of the people she aided weren’t even in her district.

John Morgan, the personal-injury attorney who spent millions of his own dollars to fight for a constitutional amendment — approved by voters in November — that will raise the minimum wage in Florida to $15 an hour by 2026.

Maitland’s Chris Nikic, 21, who became the first person with Down syndrome to conquer an Ironman triathlon — the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike race and 26.2-mile run considered the world’s toughest single-day athletic challenge — which he finished in under 17 hours. His story, overcoming years of discouragement and the low expectations of others, brought much-needed inspiration in a historically challenging time, Lafferty said.

Chuck O’Neal, a longtime advocate for clean water and black bears, who campaigned for an Orange County charter amendment designed to allow more people to file lawsuits to halt water pollution. His “rights of nature” initiative, intended largely to protect the Wekiva and Econlockhatchee rivers, won an astounding 89% of the vote.

Father José Rodríguez, an Episcopal priest known for his activism in the Hispanic community, who has become a champion for the historically underserved Orange County community of Azalea Park, where he converted a traditional food pantry into a COVID-safe, socially distanced means of feeding hungry families.

“A lot has changed in a year,” Lafferty said, noting the Central Floridian of the Year ceremony is usually held in a hotel ballroom over dinner. “But one thing that hasn’t changed is the devotion people show to one another and their community. You know, the pandemic has been a terrible time for so many people in so many ways, but it’s all the more reason … to thank the people who confronted the challenges of 2020 and gave us all hope.”

ksantich@orlandosentinel.com

The finalists for 2020’s Central Floridian of the Year — nominated by Sentinel readers — were there when we needed them. They got unemployment benefits for the out-of-work. They fed the needy. They got a pay raise for those who need it the most. And they saved our lives.

This is the 38th year that the Orlando Sentinel has recognized a person or a group that made a difference in our lives. It’s our way of thanking them on behalf of a grateful region for bringing out what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature.

The 2019 winner was the Rev. Mary Downey, an Osceola County pastor whose mission is to put roofs over the heads of the homeless.

We’ll announce the 2020 winner in February. For now, meet our six finalists:

Anna Eskamani. We don’t often include politicians among the finalists.

But we don’t often get flooded with nominations from readers grateful for an elected official working tirelessly to help her constituents in their time of greatest need. Florida’s unemployment compensation was designed by politicians years ago to fail. When it collapsed so spectacularly at the start of the pandemic, Eskamani was a one-woman cleanup crew, providing real-time updates and constant advocacy to help desperate people get the unemployment benefits they deserved. She advocated not only for her constituents in Florida House District 47 but for Floridians across the state whose representatives weren’t as responsive or motivated. Eskamani isn’t a finalist because of her politics, she’s a finalist because of her work.

John Morgan. You’ve known him for years as the personal injury lawyer with his “for the people” slogan on TVs, buses and billboards.

Morgan’s made a fortune from his law practice, and then spent millions of it to bankroll a constitutional amendment — approved by voters in November — that will raise the minimum wage in Florida to $15 an hour by 2026. In a low-wage area like Central Florida’s, it’s probably more economically consequential for service workers than anything government has done in decades, which is very little. A lot of workers are going to get a raise because Morgan made “for the people” a cause, not just a catchy slogan.

Chris Nikic. A full Ironman race consists of a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run, all in under 17 hours.

In 2020, Chris Nikic made it more than just a grueling event when he became the first person with Down syndrome to complete an Ironman Triathlon. Encouraged and trained by his father, the 21-year-old Nikic finished an event that’s out of reach for many athletes who don’t have a disability. Nikic showed us that almost anything is possible if you have the heart for it. In a year of so much bad news, we needed Chris Nikic.

Chuck O’Neal. A longtime advocate for clean water and black bears, O’Neal more recently turned his attention toward an Orange County charter amendment designed to allow more people to file lawsuits to halt water pollution.

O’Neal’s “rights of nature” initiative, intended largely to protect the Wekiva and Econlockhatchee rivers, won an astounding 89% of the vote. For now, the amendment is moot because of a state law that forbids legal action based on “rights of nature.” But the outcome left no doubt where Orange County residents stand.

Father José Rodríguez. An Episcopal priest, Rodríguez is known for his activism in the Hispanic community.

He’s worked to find housing for Puerto Ricans who relocated here after Hurricane Maria. He was an insistent voice for Orange County to rename Jackson Middle School for baseball great Roberto Clemente. He’s been an advocate for Azalea Park, an underserved Orange County community where his church is located. And during the pandemic, he’s turned his energies toward converting a food pantry into a COVID-safe, socially distanced means of feeding hungry families. Rodríguez is living a life of service to others.

Health-care workers. Several years ago the Sentinel named the emergency workers at Orlando Health the Central Floridians of the Year for their response to the Pulse nightclub massacre.

This year, doctors and nurses faced a new challenge. The pandemic has been a sustained, exhausting and dangerous effort to treat people with COVID-19. Health-care professionals have been in harm’s way throughout because of their contact with infectious patients. But so many lives have been saved because of their heroics. Without them, the number of lives lost would have been unthinkable.

Contact Mike Lafferty at mlafferty@orlandosentinel.com

1984: Mary Wiley, who founded the first Florida chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

1985: John DeGrove, who pushed the Legislature to pass tough growth-management laws.

1986: Glen Doran, researcher at the Windover archaeological site near Titusville.

here.” title=”Glen Doran, researcher at the Windover archaeological site near Titusville. Read more here.” data-src=”/wp-content/uploads/migration/2021/01/02/R2GBUV45TNHIJMEX6I73ZVRU2I.jpg”>

1987: Augustin Roman, Catholic auxiliary bishop who helped immigrants in South Florida.

1988: Jack Eckerd, for his work on prison reform.

1989: Jack Levine, for championing the cause of child welfare.

1990: Charles Reed, for his accomplishments as university-system chancellor.

1991: Hank and Katherine Collins, for their work in the crusade for decent, affordable housing.

1992: Kate Hale, for fighting for hurricane preparedness as Dade County’s emergency-management director.

1993: Janet Reno, for her visionary leadership as U.S. attorney general.

1994: Henry Landwirth, for trying to give sick kids the world.

1995: Hugh McKean, for sharing his passion for art and culture.

1996: Jim Henry, for promoting racial reconciliation as head of the Southern Baptist Convention.

1997: Frederick Humphries, for his work as president of Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University.

1998: The firefighter, for battling wildfires that threatened Central Florida.

1999/Floridian of the Millennium: John Gorrie, for inventing air conditioning.

1999/Floridian of the 20th Century: The newcomer, for all those new to Florida and what they did for the state in the past century.

2000: Peter C.H. Pritchard, for efforts to protect Florida’s wildlife.

(The award was called Floridian of the Year until 2001, when it was rebranded Central Floridian of the Year to provide a more local focus.)

2001: The Apopka Little League team, for winning the national championship and uniting the region.

2002: Dick Batchelor, for helping to rally Orange County to pass a tax increase for schools.

2003: Central Floridians who fought in Iraq, for defending freedom.

2004: Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings, for work during the record hurricane season.

2005: John Hitt, for his overall efforts to make UCF one of the best public universities in the nation.

2006: Joe Lewis, owner of Tavistock, for his drive to turn a “medical city” in Lake Nona into a reality.

2007: Catholic nuns Cathy Gorman, Ann Kendrick, Gail Grimes and Teresa McElwee, for helping the poor.

2008: Dr. Deborah German, dean of UCF’s College of Medicine, for her efforts to build the medical school.

2009: Dave Krepcho, president and CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, for his tireless efforts to feed the hungry during hard times.

2010: Michael Dippy, founder of IDignity, for helping homeless people regain their identity papers so they can restart their lives.

2011: Harris Rosen, hotelier, for his contributions to the region’s economy, and for his philanthropy.

2012: Deirdre Macnab, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida, for her determination on behalf of the state’s voters.

2013: Katie Porta, for her work with the developmentally disabled through Quest Inc.

2014: Harriett Lake, for years of support and generous contributions to arts and cultural organizations and other good causes.

2015: Andrae Bailey, CEO of the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness, for achieving a record year for fundraising and other milestones.

2016: Emergency Medicine and Trauma Teams/ORMC, for extraordinary efforts to save lives in the Pulse nightclub shootings.

2017: Dave Green, for leading his Feeding Children Everywhere charity, which sent aid to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.

2018: Desmond Meade, for leading the Amendment 4 effort that restored voting rights to ex-felons.

2019: The Rev. Mary Lee Downey, for her efforts to alleviate poverty and homelessness in Osceola County.

2020: Central Florida’s health-care workers, for their selflessness, dedication and efforts to heal during the historic COVID-19 pandemic.

2021: Richard Lapchick, for a career spent battling racism in the sports world and beyond.

2022: Gary Cain, who spent four decades building the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida into one of the most successful branches in the country.

As director of Community Hope Center in Kissimmee, she’d been helping people find homes and better their lives for years. For her efforts, Downey was named the Orlando Sentinel’s 2019 Central Floridian of the Year at a Thursday evening celebration of the six finalists.

“Wow,” Downey said as she accepted the award. “I believe in the people we serve in the community, and I believe they have wishes and hopes and dream like I did as a little girl. And I believe they have a right to see those dreams come true.”

Downey was presented the award Thursday evening at an event at the Sheraton Orlando North hotel in Maitland. The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board has given out the award since 1983.

The other five finalists were 24-year-old Revel Lubin, who’s been starting charitable programs since he was at Oak Ridge High; 97-year-old Richard Ortega, a decorated D-Day veteran who’s spent decades volunteering for causes in Orlando; Donna Hedrick, a sexual assault victim whose courage inspired a proposed new law; Ron and Lin Wilensky, who operate shelters for homeless people with mental illness; and Alex Morgan, Ashlyn Harris and Ali Krieger, Orlando Pride players who were on the winning U.S. World Cup soccer team.

Downey didn’t know anyone when she arrived in Kissimmee from Arkansas in 2006. She got a job at the First United Methodist Church as director of evangelism and children’s ministry.

It didn’t take long for her to see a gnawing need running through the heart of Osceola County. U.S. Highway 192 was lined with low-budget motels originally designed to draw visitors to nearby Walt Disney World.

Instead of tourists, the motels were increasingly occupied by families. A lot of the parents worked low-wage jobs in the tourism industry. They didn’t have the credit rating or deposit necessary to get an apartment.

Though they had roofs over their heads, they didn’t have homes. The situation worsened with the 2008 financial crisis.

People were living in cars, campgrounds and on the streets. Downey saw as many as nine people sharing a hotel rooms and felt she had to do something.

With the help of a local Presbyterian church, she drew up a business plan and started Community Hope Center. The nonprofit helps people find long-term housing, and has programs that provide food, education assistance and other services.

“You sometimes feel like you can’t get anywhere in life, but they helped me get my life back to where I was and now I feel like I can be who I really am,” a client named Ruben said on the center’s website.

The 37-year-old Downey remains the driving force, doing everything from handing out diapers to cajoling legislators and corporations for funding.

Almost 8,200 families in Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties are homeless. he largest slice of them, 7,922, live with other families or in motels and hotels, according to data collected by the school districts. School buses make almost 100 stops every day along Highway 192.

The situation got the attention of Hollywood in 2017 with the release of “The Florida Project.” The film was shot in Kissimmee and told a fictional story of a 6-year-old girl living in a motel with her single mother. Downey helped develop the script and give the project real-life perspective.

“She sees her ministry as being defined as building bridges within the community and empowering the families to start new lives,” the film’s director, Sean Baker, told the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. “I saw them as the hub. That’s why I kept going back. She was the authority.”

Community Hope Center began with a staff of two people and now has 22 workers. While it has grown, so has the problem it addresses.

The center served more than 10,000 clients in 2019 and found stable, long-term housing for 59 families. The 59th family was handed the keys to an apartment on Christmas Eve. Besides the material assistance, the family received hope for Christmas.

For providing that gift to so many people, Downey is the Central Floridian of the Year.

dwhitley@orlandosentinel.com

That’s what I sometimes tell our Central Floridian of the Year finalists when I call to let them know the editorial board wants to recognize their contributions of time, talent or treasure to make our region a better place in 2019.

Last year we thanked Desmond Meade, the Orlando man who was our 2018 Central Floridian of the Year for leading the effort to change Florida’s constitution so that ex-felons could regain the right to vote. Florida’s voters overwhelmingly passed the amendment, restoring a basic freedom to people who had paid their debt to society.

This year the editorial board has a list of six finalists. That’s more than usual, but the editorial board couldn’t agree on whom to cut. Since it’s our award, and we get to make the rules, six it was.

Over the next few weeks we’ll publish stories about each of the finalists and their contributions. We’ll name the winner at an event on Feb. 27.

For now, here’s a quick look at our 2019 finalists:

Donna Hedrick. You may have read about her a couple of weeks ago in Scott Maxwell’s column. She was a kid, raped long ago by a teacher. In 2017, Hedrick decided to come forward and tell her story. But at first no one was willing to listen. Police said the statute of limitations for prosecuting her attacker had expired. Now Hedrick’s name is on a bill — Donna’s Law — that would do away with all such limits for kids who are sexually assaulted.

Alex Morgan, Ashlyn Harris and Ali Krieger. Soccer fans recognize this trio as players for the Orlando Pride and members of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, which won the World Cup last summer and gave Central Floridians a thrill of local pride. But then the team used that high-profile platform to demand pay equality with the men’s team. Fame is good, but it’s better when you do something constructive with it. (Harris and Krieger just got married in Miami last week, so double congratulations to them.)

Mary Lee Downey. When the indie film “The Florida Project” opened in 2017, it revealed to audiences the kind of life that tourism workers live in Kissimmee hotels, the only shelter some can afford. The movie was nothing new to the Rev. Mary Lee Downey, who founded the Community Hope Center in 2013. The charity helps low-income families get by and find help, with a focus on the area’s homeless and hotel populations. The region’s housing crisis may be getting more attention these days, but Downey has been in the trenches for a long time.

Richard Ortega. At 96 years old, Ortega is a marvel of longevity, but also generosity. He came to the United States from Cuba in 1923, joined the Army in 1942 and two years later was running across the sands of Omaha Beach during D-Day. After a long career of military service he could have taken to the rocker but instead began a new career of volunteer services for the Civil Air Patrol, Meals on Wheels and the city of Orlando. What a remarkable life.

Revel Lubin. For some high school kids, sports can become all consuming. For three-sport Oak Ridge High athlete Revel Lubin, sports became dispensable after his mother died. Revel quit football, basketball and tennis in his junior year so he could help support the family. Then he started a holiday food drive here. Then, at the University of Florida, he came up with a grant program to help kids get their laundry done. Now he’s at Yale’s divinity school. All of this at 24 years old.

Ron and Lin Wilensky. Opening Dave’s House to shelter homeless people with mental illness was personal for the Wilenskys. Lin’s brother, Dave, struggled with mental illness for years but finally found a place where he could live his life in relative peace and safety. The couple now operate nine homes in Florida and Virginia, where some 100 people find similar refuge. In a region with a chronic housing shortage, they help those who face some of the greatest challenges in finding shelter.

These finalists were among the dozens of nominations we received from readers. We’re lucky to live in an area with so many people who deserve our thanks.

Contact Mike Lafferty at mlafferty@orlandosentinel.com.

“We’ve always heard the adage that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. And that holds true for our community, for our country, for this world.

“If we do want our communities to be strong and our state to be strong and this country to be strong we must commit to empowering the weakest among us. The homeless, those who are hungry, those who are silenced, our children, our elderly…I do consider that an honor.”

“It wasn’t too long ago I stood in front of railroad tracks, thinking that my life didn’t matter…when I was standing and waiting on that train to come and it didn’t, and I crossed those tracks and I asked myself if I would had died that day how many people would come to my funeral? And the immediate answer was zero. I would have been buried in a pauper’s grave because I didn’t have an ID, and no one would have been notified that I had died.

“But even with the best-case scenario, with my picture on the paper saying that I died, and I thought about how many people would come to my funeral and the answer was only four. And I questioned my significance on this earth, with the relationships and the places that I have been, to only have four people care if I died.

“And that transformation that occurred afterward helped me understand and tap into the greatest joy that I’ve ever felt in my life. It was a joy that I was chasing all my life and didn’t know that I was even chasing it, but that joy was discovering what my purpose was. And to finally realize that all it was just to give back.

“Everything that our spiritual creator has made always took a little and gave a little. And that’s all I ever wanted to do. I didn’t seek for this. I didn’t seek for anything. I just woke up every day just wanting to know what can I do to make this world a better place for everyone. Not for me but for everyone.

“Excuse my tears but I would have never thought that I would be here accepting an award such as this…Thank all my fellow finalists. You are all worthy of receiving this, and so I feel fortunate that my name was called.”