Locals win title of ‘Hometown Hero’

In Pocatello on Friday, 10 Idahoans received the title of Hometown Hero and a medal to go along with it.

The idea behind this award for Idaho locals started soon after Doctors Naeem and Fahim Rahim both received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in New York.

The brothers felt there were plenty of other Idahoans deserving of their own recognition.

“Basically we are recognizing the heroes in our state that get overlooked. And we are surrounded by them all,” Naeem said.

Each of the medalists this year are getting the recognition for different reasons.

But the Rahims said all of the honorees are worthy of being called Hometown Heroes because they have something in common.

“They have the capability to improve the lives of the people around them,” Naeem said.

One of the recipients is Don Aslett. He made a living and well known name from all things clean, but he calls himself a glorified janitor and says there are plenty more people just as worthy of this honor.

“There’s people that have changed the whole world from Pocatello. It’s a shame that it can only be a little handful of us that can be here,” Aslett said.

Ten people won the Hometown Hero medal this year: Don Aslett, Cpl. Phillip Matthew Baldwin, Jonathan Cree, M.D., Patti Farrell, Warren Nyer, Jody Olson, Rudolfo Pena, Bonnie Stoddard, Steve Appleton, and Sgt. Ryan Sharp.

The Rahim brothers said the point of the award is to hopefully inspire others to do some good.

“The purpose of this is to pay it forward. The purpose is for people to be inspired by people like these. If we could have more heroes like this in our state, we would be very lucky,” Naeem said.

Click here to nominate someone for next year’s Idaho Hometown Hero Medals.