Today’s media have no restrictions when it comes to showing images and messages to our children about how they should act, dress and who they should look up to. Even children’s Disney productions like Hannah Montana, which any parent would assume would be nice for her children to see, have Hannah unable to understand the word “no” and, on occasion, she dresses like a professional babe. These programs come with an intent to send a valuable lesson, pictures and story are the messages they send loudest and clearest. The message is that all children should strive to look and act like a movie star.

Children have always needed a role model, someone to give them a good genuine example to follow. Sure, TV stars and rock stars are more popular, and they’re certainly in everyone’s face with the TV news, tabloids and the like, but they’re not the ideal example for our children. Children need to be aware that they are surrounded by ordinary examples of heroism in firefighters and police officers. These are the people you should take as role models.

Police officers and firefighters are generally ordinary people, but to those whose lives they have saved and/or improved, they are much more than ordinary people, they are unforgettable heroes. These brave public servants dedicate years of their lives to keeping our country and its people safe. Your efforts make a huge difference in the lives of countless people.

When many of these officers and firefighters leave the force, they look for another way to serve the public, since public service is such an important part of their personal makeup. One way to use your training and experience is to produce emergency vehicles for the government. These emergency vehicles include trailers like FEMA trailers, SWAT vehicles, mobile crime labs, and more. Without such vehicles, our country would not be able to help the victims as well as it is now.

While a life spent working in the police or fire station may be a career and life well spent for many, the step to creating emergency vehicles takes a life well spent one step further. Activities like this are more than enough to classify any of these men and women as a local hero. There are others who can be classified as heroes for very different reasons.

These people are also very likely to be involved in charitable giving which, over the years, has made a huge difference in people’s lives. They have supported children in Africa, various charities in their own communities, and many research and childcare facilities. True, they can’t cure cancer or provide everything people might need, but they do a great deal to alleviate the suffering of others and encourage others to do the same.

The ideal role model doesn’t have to be a TV star you see every day or an article you regularly read about in the tabloids. As people like police officers and firefighters have shown us so well, it’s often the ordinary people we should look up to, who really make the best role models. The true role models for our children should be someone who does their best every day, and this is what these ordinary heroes do every day of their working lives and after.