Every year, the National Liberty Museum recognizes students around the country who stand up for others with our Young Heroes Award, sponsored by TD Bank. Every year, we recognize one student who has demonstrated responsibility and excellent  character with our President’s Honor Award. Our winner for 2009 was Van Morn, an amazing Philadelphian whose good works appear to be unstoppable.

Van had just completed his final year at Olney High School in Philadelphia, and now attends Thaddeus Stevens University.  He was nominated by Mrs. Elaine Steinbacher, his advisor for the Pennsylvania Congressional Awards Program.

Olney is a neighborhood in North Philadelphia with a rich history.  Originally rolling hills of farmland settled by German-Americans, Olney has become home to people from all over the world.  Its story is Philadelphia’s story.  The neighborhood, like most of the city, was hit hard by the deindustrialization of the 1960s and 70s. Factories closed down.  Businesses, and the jobs they offered, disappeared.  Crime rates went up.  Many people moved out.  In their place, new populations moved in: Vietnamese, Columbians, Koreans, African-Americans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Laotians, Cambodians.  They saw the opportunity in this neighborhood.  They have worked hard and kept Olney alive, carrying on old traditions and starting new ones.

Van and his family are a part of this renewal.  He, his parents, and his two younger sisters moved from the country of Cambodia to the United States, in search of a promise.  His grandmother, who lost three children to the dictatorship of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, lives in California and took the family in.  She didn’t have enough room in her house.  It was not easy, but that was no deterrent.

Van grew up in a world of poverty, and his family worked hard every day to survive.  They only had enough to eat because his mother planted and cultivated crops when she wasn’t working.  “We are a surviving type of family,” Van says.

This time last year, he had a job, and was a full-time high school student, and faced the additional challenge of becoming a fluent English speaker.   Still, he volunteered your time to the less fortunate.  He gave his time to the Inglis House for Disabled Adults.  He initiated “clean-up-the-streets” programs in your neighborhood.  He even helped with the Pennsylvania Migrant Education Program, as their official photographer.

Van is the kind of person who sees the opportunities ahead of him, and reaches for them.  At the same time, he does his best to give other people an opportunity too.  He’s a hard worker, and an exceptional student, but the quality that best defines him is his gratitude.  He is happy to have been given a chance to succeed, and he can’t help but give back to everyone around him.

Van won the President’s Honor because he has proven himself to be a remarkable Young Hero.  We admire his can-do attitude, and for his refusal to give up.  We honored him for his giving nature and his commitment to others. He has already achieved so much, and now has a whole lifetime to build on those accomplishments and to inspire others.  Congratulations, Van!

The National Liberty Museum is home to a brand-new exhibit that features some amazing Heroes of Character.  In Liberty Hall, right near our wall of military decorations, we now have interactive touch-screen computers created by the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation.  They tell the stories of the more than 3400 people who have received our country’s highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor. You can look at the name of every single person ever given this medal, and videos of many of the surviving awardees.

One person whose story caught my eye is Duane Dewey. Up above is a picture of him and his wife in 2004. He served in the Marines as a corporal in the Korean War. In April 1952, twenty-year-old Corporal Dewey was in charge of a squad of Marines when an exploding grenade shot pieces of metal into his legs and buttocks. He cried out that he'd been hit, and a Navy medical corpsman rushed over to help. As he was lying there and getting treatment, Corporal Dewey saw another grenade land right next to him.

He grabbed it, thinking fast. He could throw it away, but he wasn't in a good position for that. He couldn't tell whether he'd be able to throw it far enough. If it exploded right by his men, he knew they might be injured or killed. What else could he do?

He did the only thing he could think of to protect everyone around him - he put the grenade underneath his own body. He managed to pull the medic down to the ground and shout, "Hit the dirt!" and then it detonated. The explosion was so strong that it lifted his body off of the ground. Because of his quick thinking and selflessness, no one else was injured, not even the medic right next to him.

He was wounded pretty badly, though. Because of the intense fighting going on around him, he had to wait a long time to be evacuated to a hospital. As he laid waiting, his thoughts turned to his wife and their baby daughter, whom he had never met - she was born after he shipped out. Even then, in pain and worried for his life, he was thinking about others. He remembers thinking, please, let my wife find a good dad for our daughter, and a good husband for herself.

After a long night, he was evacuated to a field hospital and underwent surgery. He got to meet his daughter and to be at home with the wife he loved. Today, he is a grandfather and a great-grandfather. President Eisenhower, when he gave him the Medal of Honor, remarked that he must have "a body made of steel." That's what makes this story so important – Corporal Dewey’s body wasn't indestructible. He could have been hurt, and he could have been killed, but still he opened himself up to great risk to protect other people.

Corporal Duane Dewey is a real Hero of Character!

Who's your Hero of Character? You still have time to send us your entries for our 2010 Caretoons Contest.  Mail your entry to us, or send it via email. For rules and an entry form, click here. Hurry, though - the deadline is April 15!