The North Jefferson News again asked you, our readers, to submit the names of Community Champions, or men and women who go above and beyond to help others and to improve their communities. Your submissions ranged from a high school teacher to foster parents to a small business owner and others.

Here are some of the nominations for this year’s Community Champions.

Billy Hughes

I don’t think I really have to explain this one. Anyone that knows him, or has had him as a teacher or coach at Fultondale High School knows that he has touched many people in north Jefferson.

He is a mentor, a friend and a father figure — from taking kids from other schools and communities to wrestling camps, sometimes using money out of his own pocket to help pay the way, to taking in kids to his home and “adopting” them into his own family.

This man has probably touched thousands of people. You can’t go anywhere with Billy in the state, possibly the Southeast, without him running into someone he knows and has probably made a difference in their life.

And the most important thing about him is he does it all without asking for anything in return, and he does it with a smile.

— Marijean Cannon Ballard

Janie Kirk McCallie

I have a great nomination for an unsung hero: Janie Kirk McCallie from here in Warrior. She is an awesome mother, grandmother, sister, wife and friend. She has lived in numerous countries while her hubby was in the Air Force and has made Warrior her home town for the last few years.

She helps head up support for the Regional Library at Warrior. She donates both financially and her time every Wednesday selling used books at the location site.

I also know Janie from church. We both go to WaterStone Church in Warrior. She teaches children’s Sunday school there, as well as volunteering a lot of her time.

She is a kidney cancer survivor and I feel blessed, as does as anyone who knows her, to call her friend. She never asks for a thank you or good job. She just does all that she does out of love.

How she can do all this is awesome.

And I feel like I have barely scratched the surface of all she does. Even more so considering how active she is in her late 60s. If God permits me to live that long I hope for half the energy she has.

— Mike Bankston

Greg and Tracy Hacker

I have a nomination of two people: A sweet couple, Greg and Tracy Hacker.

They have been fostering children for seven years, and 41 children have been in their home. They have adopted two of them and will adopt another in September.

Greg is owner of Fun Source Rentals. He hired the father of one of the families that lived with them in order to help them out.

They are both the most unselfish and giving people I have ever met. They have changed so many lives and been love and hope and rescue to so many children. That’s what this life is all about.

— Beth Rogers

Allen Folse

Allen Folse, owner of Hamburger Heaven in Gardendale, has been a major part of the Gardendale community for the past seven years.

Just three weeks after opening Hamburger Heaven, he was involved in a major motorcycle wreck that broke his neck.

It does not take long to be around Allen to realize that yes, Hamburger Heaven is about the great quality food, but it’s about helping people. If it’s not a pancake fundraiser, he’s donating 200 milkshakes to the North Jefferson Women and Children’s Center.

He is heading up a North Jefferson Century ride, which is the first of its kind in our area. The ride is great for cyclists it’s great for our community, but it’s all for CDKL5 research.

You can ask any of his employees how he has personally helped them. He just has this way of finding avenues to help people and a generous heart that keeps on giving.

— Tina Howse

Amy Sizemore

One community hero would be Amy Sizemore. She is the children’s director at Gardendale-Mt. Vernon United Methodist Church, and I’m a little biased since she is my wife.

She has worked tirelessly with the children at church and other kids also. She has given so much of her time and herself to advancing the kingdom and has had to make sacrifices for herself and her family but hasn’t complained once (not even in private to me).

I think she is awesome at what she does and I’m sure some of the parents of the kids she leads would agree with me.

— Jamie Sizemore