Some of you might recognize this man. It's 26-year-old Sean A. Collier, the MIT police officer who was killed in a shootout with the Boston Marathon bombers Thursday night.
Sean, who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect his community, was one of the dozens if not hundreds of anonymous heroes who stepped it up for Boston in the wake of the tragedy.
All the anonymous heroes who, immediately after the explosion, ran to bleeding victims to apply makeshift tourniquets until paramedics arrived - saving lives and limbs.
All the anonymous heroes who, like Sean Collier, were professional first responders - medics, police, doctors, ambulance drivers, et al.
All the anonymous heroes who raced to develop and upload all their marathon photos, to see if one might not contain a clue to finding the suspects.
All the anonymous heroes who simply saw other people looking lost and bewildered and ran over to hug them and help them or just say: "I know."
All the anonymous heroes who flooded phone lines and websites with donations to help the victims.
And on and on.
At Steiner Sports, we celebrate known heroes - the Riveras, Mannings and Messiers who inspire thousands of us on an almost daily basis.
Granted, we're not going to start selling autographs of Sean Collier, or any other anonymous heroes.
But that doesn't mean we can't honor and celebrate them, anyway.
When was the last time you went up to a police officer and just thanked them for being police? When was the last time you spent a few extra moments with your mailman or your cleaning person or any of the other people you see frequently who could well end up being anonymous heroes applying tourniquets? When was the last time you called someone you have beef with (another potential anonymous hero) just to say, "I know we don't agree on everything, but I'm glad you're in this world"?
Anonymous heroes are all around us.
It's too late for Sean Collier to hear all the gratitude flowing his way.
Let's not wait for more tragedy to let our anonymous heroes know how much we appreciate them.
