RVA is a community that gives, and when we see someone making an effort to build a better region we celebrate them. Such is the case with the annual Hometown Heroes Award by the law firm of Allen, Allen, Allen, & Allen. Launched in 2010 during the firm’s 100-year anniversary, the award honors first responders, teachers, small business owners, nonprofit leaders, and other heroes from around the Commonwealth.

“This is an exciting time of year for Allen & Allen—it’s time for the firm, and the community at large, to celebrate the act of giving,” explains Trent Kerns, president of Allen & Allen. Kerns points to winners of this year’s award from Greater Richmond, Fredericksburg, and the Charlottesville-Albemarle area as examples of local residents who represent what the firm sees as the real heroes in the community. “For over 100 years Allen & Allen has been greatly inspired by the heroes around us—the community members who spend each day improving the cities, small towns, and neighborhoods throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia,” says Kerns.

The public nominated their favorite local heroes who they felt were responsible for generating positive and measurable change in their communities. Allen & Allen accepted nomination forms for the annual award from April to May. Martha Rollins, one of the local winners of the award, was nominated for creating Boaz & Ruth, a social enterprise that has provided on-the-job training and work readiness skills for individuals needing a second chance. In 2001, Rollins, an antiques dealer in Highland Park, noted the disconnect between the people who often shopped at her store and those living in poverty next to her business. She launched Boaz & Ruth to help people released from prison each week, spur commercial rehabilitation, and fight crime. Today her organization offers an array of employment opportunities through its café and catering business, used furniture store, furniture restoration business, home repair and furniture moving, and more.

Currently Boaz & Ruth provides approximately 60 paid positions for employees and program participants, many of whom live in Highland Park. Best of all, 72 percent of her program’s graduates obtain a job after graduation; of those, 80 percent maintain a job for at least a year. Other winners of this year’s honor include Terrell Pollard, a Richmonder who began contributing to the community as an Eagle Scout.

Pollard, who went on to become a Boy Scout leader, founded The Bridge CDC, an organization that provides ESL and GED classes throughout Greater Richmond, while in college. As a youth leader of Henrico Community Action Committee, he played an integral part in the construction of a $16 million community center. Managing his family’s business, Pollard also provides kids with summer jobs as part of an after-school program.

Winners like Pollard and Rollins, along with a host of other heroes from across Virginia, will be honored this summer at Innsbrook After Hours, while award ceremonies have already been hosted in Fredericksburg and Charlottesville during Fridays After Five (where Richmond band No BS! Brass Band played). “It’s an annual tradition for Allen & Allen to pause, look around, and pay tribute to the good citizens of the Commonwealth who define what it takes to be a true hero, says Kern.