Vera Hirschhorn, Founder, Educator and Author is accompanied by award winning students.
In August, 2006 Ms. Hirschhorn received the 2006 President’s Award from the Florida Publishers Association for the Best Young Adult Non-Fiction Book entitled, Teens Are Heroes, Too! Challenges, Choices and Character. It’s an anthology of award-winning essays, poetry and art by and about teens who have discovered the hero within. Excellent reviews have been received from Susan Levine in the December issue of VOYA magazine; Superintendent of the Palm Beach County School District, Dr. Art Johnson, in the Preface; Dr. Richard T. Vacca, Professor Emeritus, Kent State University; Dr. Helen LeGette,author; Gloria Allin, Palm Beach County Literacy Coalition.
On January 18, 2005, Ms.Hirschhorn was honored as a VIP at the Awards Ceremony sponsored by the Boca Raton Composite Squadron of the U.S. Air Force Auxiliary Civil Air Patrol. At the same time, five heroic cadets were given an America's Young Heroes award for their hurricane disaster relief effort.
Ms. Hirschhorn was honored with sales and book signings with students at Barnes & Noble in Boca Raton, FL.
Ms. Hirschhorn's Book I on young heroes in the Civil War was sold to the National State Park in Shiloh and to educators at annual Teachers’ Guild conferences.
Ms. Hirschhorn's poem , “Fun in the Sun” was selected by the Palm Beach County Art in Public Places committee for the Palm Beach International Airport’s exhibition in 2003, Destination: Culture. Also, her photograph, “Life Amidst the Ashes” was juried in, for the 2003 FSA/NLAPW arts competition.
The Happy Times Monthly published “her story” and requested that Vera begin an America’s Young Heroes column.
Ms. Hirschhorn is the recipient of a Gold Key to the City of Boca Raton and a Proclamation to declare November as America’s Young Heroes Month from the mayor and the city council. She has received similar Proclamations from the School Board of Palm Beach County and Board of County Commissioners.
A “Red Wagon” pin was awarded to her from the local Boca Raton chapter of General Colin Powell’s America’s Promise - The Alliance for Youth. Ms. Hirschhorn was honored to be part of the event-planning team of “A Rally for Youth” to welcome General Powell to South Florida.
Ms. Hirschhorn’s America’s Young Heroes Journal, Book I was the recipient of the 2001 First Place Award for the best published juvenile book by The Florida State Association of the National League of American Pen Women. America's Young Heroes: A Celebration, Book II, in the series, won the second place award in 2003.
(The League was founded in 1897 by the niece of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and seventeen professional women to end the discrimination of women in the press. First Lady Pen Women include Edith Wilson, Grace Coolidge, Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosalynn Carter, Barbara Bush and Hillary Rodham Clinton.)
Ms. Hirschhorn is proud to have been selected by the Delray Beach Public Library to help “kick off” their new “Teen Youth Council”. She was also invited by the Youth Services Dept. of the library to present an interactive experience, "Express Yourself".
Ms. Hirschhorn was honored with media coverage of the annual Celebration of America’s Young Heroes Awards Ceremony by WXEL, WPBF-TV 25, WPTV 5 NBC and WPEC-TV 12 since 1999.