Editor’s Note: This post is part of our series celebrating our Guiding Stars, the Local Guides who went above and beyond to make a difference in 2020, on Google Maps and off. Read more here.
We see countless Local Guides doing heroic acts for the betterment of others on a daily basis, but this year, there were at least ten who went above and beyond.
Our Helpful Heroes are the kind of people we all need in our lives; the Local Guides that seek out new ways to help their community, both on and off Maps. Some of them are front line medical professionals, who not only help people as part of their practice, but also give back by making contributions to help people stay safe. Others started campaigns to support charitable causes or promote women’s empowerment.
To celebrate these incredible Local Guides, we wanted to share a bit about what inspired them to make a difference this year.
Passion for helping those in need
Like many of you in the Local Guides community around the world, all ten of our Helpful Heroes share a deep passion for helping others. For example, Pritish spent his free time in 2020 coordinating and collecting food, supplies, and money to deliver to those in need in his area.
Devi is known as the “Mom Local Guide” because she loves to take care of others and this is reflected in her helpful contributions relating to safety measures taken by businesses in 2020.
Nyai and Sumaiya dedicated time this year to help in a variety of ways, including making the Map more inclusive for women in their areas. Sumaiya also launched a charitable project that provides sanitary napkins for women in need in Bangladesh.
Connecting with others
Ashley met someone this year who inspired her to devote time to volunteering at her local homeless shelter. This chance meeting motivated her to donate her time and also include information to help on Google Maps as well. In addition to her regular volunteer hours, she regularly creates lists like this one highlighting helpful information like homeless shelters.
Lily found herself joining and hosting more meet-ups with more time to participate and contribute in 2020. Connecting with fellow Local Guides in this way inspired her to make a difference and spread the word about how others can do the same.
Professional duty crossing over into personal life
For medical professionals like Mélissa, Sutapa, Ameyali, and Deliana, helping others is not just a career, it’s a way of life. They spent their hours on the job working on the front lines to keep others healthy. In their off hours, they continued giving back to the people in their community by surfacing helpful information on Google Maps. The Map and the world became a better place because of people like them who devoted their lives to helping others.
Join us in congratulating our Helpful Heroes in the comments below!
. Kudos to all of you 
Stars and fellow Helpful Heroes: