2008 Hero of the Year

"The Witness" is our 2008 Hero of the Year.

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By a wide margin, readers chose Moezeldin Elmostafa of Durham, North Carolina, as the Reader's Digest 2008 Hero of the Year.

As we reported in November, the cabdriver picked up two young men in Durham on March 14, 2006, and drove them to the Duke University campus. A month later, Elmostafa was asked to testify on behalf of one of the men, who had been charged, with two other Duke lacrosse players, with sexually assaulting an exotic dancer. Despite intense pressure from the prosecution, Elmostafa agreed to appear as a witness and helped exonerate the trio. Having recently passed his U.S. citizenship test, the Sudanese immigrant says he did only what all citizens should do -- tell the truth.

From Reader's Digest - April 2008

 

• Heros: Runaway-Rig Rescue
• First he saw the tractor-trailer going the wrong way. Then he saw the little boy behind the wheel.
• 
• Hero Pets
• We asked for your stories. Here are our picks for best in show.
• 

My sister had been ill, so I called to see how she was doing. My ten-year-old niece answered the phone. "Hello," she whispered. "Hi, honey. How's your mother?" I asked.

"She's sleeping," she answered, again in a whisper.

"Did she go to the doctor?" I asked.

"Yes. She got some medicine," my niece said softly.

"Well, don't wake her up. Just tell her I called. What are you doing, by the way?"

Again in a soft whisper, she answered, "Practicing my trumpet."

-- Sharron Disbro, South Lyon, Mich.

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