When Maryland State Trooper 1st Class Wesley Brown was shot and killed June 11 working an off-duty security job at a Forestville restaurant, his own older brother assumed a leadership role in Young Men Enlightening Younger Men, a group Wesley Brown had founded in 2007.

This has not been the easiest of years for College Park's Meals on Wheels chapter. Nonetheless, volunteers at the nonprofit fought through a historically snowy winter, record hot summer and an equally brutal economic climate to deliver breakfast, lunch and dinner five days a week to disabled and elderly residents in College Park, Berwyn Heights and parts of Beltsville and Greenbelt.

Chris Militello and Chris Davidson not only own Arrow Bicycle in Hyattsville's downtown, are also the coaches of the Special Olympics Maryland Prince George's County bicycle team, training a small group of cyclists for about eight weeks every year before an annual statewide race.

During the early 2000s, Suitland-based affordable housing developer Bleu Colquitt discovered an unlikely but powerful weapon to combat crime blighting several Suitland neighborhoods: a portable basketball hoop. Colquitt, 50, who played professional basketball in Europe for five years in the 1980s, would set up the hoop on a troubled street and invite area youth to come out and play. If drug dealers were hanging around nearby, he would firmly tell them to get lost.

For young black men in Prince George's County growing up without a father at home, there is always someone to turn to.

Darryl Barnes, 45, founded Men Aiming Higher Inc., a nonprofit organization that mentors black male youths ages 16 to 29, because he wants to educate the county's youths and give them the tools to become future leaders.

Denise Woody is not rich. In fact, she's been unemployed for the past four years - but that hasn't stopped her from helping hundreds of local families in need during the last two decades. This year, Woody's annual back-to-school drive provided local children with $12,000 worth of school supplies and services. Now she has embarked on the holiday portion of her yearlong charity efforts.

Patricia Crooks and her goddaughter, Andrea Robbins, a 34-year-old District Heights resident, had almost identical experiences. Except the experiences occurred decades apart.

Crooks began volunteering as a 16-year-old high school student in her hometown near Augusta, Ga. One of her early endeavors was to spend time at the local senior center.