Theresa Laurico believes anyone can be a community hero.
The 30-year-old Scarborough resident has been recognized with an Urban Hero Award in arts and culture for her charity work founded through her media production background.
The Urban Hero Awards is an annual awards program under Toronto Community News that recognizes those community members and grassroots level 'heroes' whose personal efforts, sacrifices or contributions have made a significant impact to a cause, a person or a group in Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke in the fields of arts and culture; community; education; environment; health and sciences and sports..
The Scarborough Mirror newspaper is under the Toronto Community News umbrella.
"When you do what you love, you're sort of not thinking of awards," Laurico said.
In 2006, Laurico was approached by MuchMusic Creative Services to help raise $27,000 to adopt a village in Sierra Leone, Africa. Laurico, a television producer and owner of e11even Productions, helped raise $27,000 for charity Free the Children. The fundraiser was named Love In Action after Laurico met and was inspired by Serving Charity founder and El Mocambo owner Abbas Jahangiri, who distributes food nightly to Toronto's homeless.
Two years later, Love In Action helped raise thousands of dollars for Serving Charity for the purchase of new sleeping bags, hats and gloves for the city's homeless.
Last year, Love In Action teamed up with New York City-based organization United Global Shift, which influenced Laurico's organization to restructure its initiatives and goals with a new direction for sustainable shift.
This year, Love In Action partnered with G Adventures to organize a national contest campaign. The contest calls leaders to create a unique fundraising project and submit a two minute video of what they did to put their love in action to raise money to support Planeterra Foundation and its Tibet eye restoration clinic.
"Theresa is an incredible person," said Liz Manning of Planeterra Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the development and support of small communities around the globe. "She organized a massive fundraising event on behalf of our organization which raised over $20,000 for our eyesight restoration camps in Tibet. Theresa has a unique ability to draw in a team of creative, dynamic people who share her commitment to uplifting youth in the community and giving back to worthy causes. She has been channeling her energy into developing new projects that create awareness about social and environmental issues around the globe. Her production skills and the relationships she has cultivated, along with her desire to give back will result in a number of future initiatives that will benefit our community and others abroad."
Everyone involved with Love In Action is strictly a volunteer and doesn't make a penny from the organization, Laurico said, adding all funds raised goes entirely to charity.
Laurico, who said her ultimate goal is working with Oprah Winfrey, hopes to incorporate Love In Action into the school system. "I always say, when you embrace humanity, all there is is love," she said. "If you love to paint, if you love to dance, put it into action. The reward is more than money could ever give."