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Next time you're waiting in line at the grocery store, themovies or a restaurant, take a look at the folks around you.

One of themcouldbe ahero. Don't expect a brightly colored suit with a cape, though. Heroes usually don't look like one might expect. Most often, they are unas-suming, quiet people who go about their daily lives like the rest of us, only they have a far stronger appre-ciation of our freedom to do just that.

Last week, when I interviewed Conrad Dowel, my callused black heart was stirred to a real feeling of patriotism when I realized that I was talking to a genuine hero. Part of it, I'm sure, was the announce-

ment the same day that some troops would be coming home from Afghanistan soon, but I think most of it was the realization of the real sacrifice those in themilitarymake for the rest of us.

Yeah, I know, I've written it a hundred times, but I can't find a better word than sacrifice and that just doesn't seem to be sufficient to explain thewhat these people have endured in the past and continue to offer the rest of us. I wonder if we are becoming jaded about these

young men and women who literal-ly put their lives on the line daily for their country.

Dowel is a 79-year-old man who served in Korea as a field medic. He saw some pretty horrific things during his years there. He was vir-tually untrained and sent to the battlefield to administer morphine and try to make dying soldiers more comfortable.

“We didn't try to save anybody. We just did what we could before they died,” he said in his quiet way.

He received the Purple Heart and another

combat medal at the Northville Fourth of July parade this week. The ceremony was almost 57 years late, but somehow, that made it all the more meaningful. At the cere-mony, the hundreds in attendance, especially those close enough to hear and see the actual pinning, shed a lot of tears. There were grownmen walking by wiping their eyes when Dowel, supported now by his two steel crutches, choked up with gratitude at receiving his medals.

That Dowel put his life at risk, as

To the editor:

It's no secret that thePlymouth-Canton Marching Band (PCMB) has been invited to march in the 2011Macy's ThanksgivingDay this November inNewYorkCity. Now it's up to the students, parents and boosters to fundraise 100 percent of the trip cost tomake this invita-tion a reality.

Corporations, alumni, and friends can also donate directly to Plymouth-Canton Music Boosters, a non-profit organization. Each year, the Boosters must raise over $300,000 to run the marching band program, an extra curricu-lar activity at the Plymouth-Canton Educational Park. In

addition to transporting the band to and from New York this year, all the instructors, uniforms, band camps, etc. must be paid. Visit www.pcmb.net for details on the sponsorship program for corpora-tions and individuals.

We need all of our friends, alumni, and boosters to support our fundraising efforts. The money raised this year will go towards the cost for the band to travel to New York City this November. Plymouth-Canton is the first Michigan band on record to be invited to Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. It's truly the Super Bowl for marching bands andwe're so hon-ored our kidswere invited. The award-winning high

To the editor

The Wayne Garden Club held its bi-annual garden walk on Saturday, June 25th. This year's theme was "Music in the Garden". There were eight yards to visit with six of themhosting livemusi-cians. The walk focused on the northwest corner of Wayne to include homes in Glenwood

There are a lot of impressive things about this area. And one of the most impressive takes place this weekend in downtown Plymouth where a mother and daughter team have literally put the city on the map as a place to visit each summer.

More than 400 artists and craftspeople will fill tents along the side streets and main avenues in town and crowd into Kellogg Park where the artists will have colored the water in the famous fountain. This 32-year-old festival is considered one of the top events in the country for artists. Let's repeat that: in the entire country.

When Dianne Quinn started the event more than three decades ago, she just got a group of artist friends together and they went to the park and painted or drew outdoors while enjoying the sunshine, socializing with each other and those who stopped by. Now Art in the Park attracts some of the finest artists in the U.S. and they bring with them oil painting, pottery, lawn ornaments, repurposed items and some of the most creative and ingenious uses ofmaterials seen anywhere. Community festivals are always fun and a great tribute to the municipality where they take place. They are an opportu-nity for neighbors to bond, for socialization, for sheer enjoy-ment of a common hometown. The Westland Summer Festival, in its fourth decade, was a great example of that last

week and Wayne will have a Wheelfest again this year. Northville added even more art to the Arts & Acts last month which filled the downtown streets and the Victorian Festival there each September draws crowds from across the state. The Canton Liberty Fest marked 20 years of celebrating the community this year and the Strawberry Festival in Belleville has a statewide reputation for delicious fun.

They are all wonderful, but there is something about the atmosphere and the attitude at Art in the Park that remains unmatched. Maybe it's the huge cadre of cheerful volunteers who help Quinn and her daughter, Raychel Rork, every year. They spend about three days working their tails off for the sheer joy of being part of this kind of celebration of the arts. The artists themselves always seem cheerful and helpful and glad to see anyone who stops by, whether they buy their work or not.

Rork, who is now president of Art in the Park, is as insis-tent as her mom that there is always plenty for children to do

and see, and if possible, get involved in, at the event. Perhaps its because one is a young mom and the other a doting grand-mother, but their efforts always pay off and children love this event asmuch as adults.

But the real key is probably the joy these two women take in the job they do. They still love this festival. They love the artists, treat most of them as friends as they do the volunteers and make sure that everything is scheduled, organized and arranged so that artists and visitors feel welcome and appre-ciated.

No detail is unimportant to them and no concern over-looked. Whatever happens, they've seen it before and they take it in stride, usuallywith a genuine smile.

It's interesting, we think, that the granddaddy of all commu-nity festivals, the Plymouth Rotary Chicken Barbecue and Fall Festival, takes place in the same city as Art in the Park. These two events, more than any others in the area, draw unprecedented crowds to Plymouth and are part of the repu-tation Plymouth enjoys as a strong, viable community and a terrific place to live.

Quinn and Rork deserve the sterling reputation they have earned as a team of organized professionals in a city they havemade a better place for everybody. Congratulations, you've done it again.

It may be a sign of the times, but the resignation of Belleville Area Historical MuseumDirector Diane Wilsonwill be the end of an era. Wilson was the very first direc-tor of the museum and one of the founders of the facility that now houses literally thousands of docu-ments and artifacts pertinent to the history of the area. She's been the driving force at the museum for 15 years but has been active in sup-porting the community and pre-serving the history of the area for more than four decades.

She and her good friend Cathy Horst authored the first edition of Water Under the Bridge, a com-pendium of historical information about the area. They, along with Park and Edna Gregory and Bob Doane, worked tirelessly to docu-ment and chronicle the history of the area.

Wilson, and the members of the Historical Society, have been dedi-cated to preserving the heritage of the area while not forgetting that the roots of the thriving, growing community began with farmers, trappers and some pretty brave early settlers. Wilson began several programs at the museum which draw crowds to the facility every year, now, and provide a vehicle for closer community ties to neigh-bors, to shared interests and to the community itself.

Wilson was a strong advocate for the museum and the efforts to preserve the history of the commu-nity. She looked at documents and artifacts from the past as evidence of the growth that the area had seen andwould continue.

She approached historic arti-facts and documents as treasure, perhaps because, without realizing it, she became one of the most valuable treasures the community