Derrick Tabb is the founder of Roots of Music, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the New Orleans music culture while keeping kids engaged in arts and academics and off the streets. Five days a week, Roots of Music provides tuition-free music education and academic tutoring to 125 New Orleans youths between the ages of 9-14. More than 85 percent of Roots of Music students have raised their academic scores by at least one letter grade in language arts and mathematics. Tabb refuses to give up in the face of difficulty, and he is truly making a difference in the lives of New Orleans' young people.

Andrea Ivory is a breast cancer survivor whose response to a life-threatening experience was to create a volunteer movement. She founded a non-profit organization with a street-level approach to attacking breast cancer. With her army of volunteers, Ivory marches through working poor neighborhoods with the highest levels of uninsured households and the highest incidence of late-stage diagnosis of breast cancer. They bring breast health materials and make appointments on the spot for uninsured women to receive free mammograms at a hospital mammography van that comes to the neighborhood. Since she began these door-to-door campaigns in 2006, Ivory's team of more than 3,000 volunteers has reached 25,000 households and provided 650 free mammograms, finding breast cancer in seven women.

Sarah Owen is dedicated to fighting homelessness and hunger in Southwest Florida in innovative ways. Last summer, she launched the beginning of a sustainable, customer choice-centered model for long-term hunger elimination. She's working to decrease the stigma attached with soup kitchens so more members of the community will accept the help they need. She has started backpack programs to feed more than 1,000 local school children who would otherwise go hungry on the weekends. So far, more than 20,000 citizens have received emergency food through a Mobile Food Pantry system she created to bring the food to the people instead of asking them to travel to a pantry. Throughout her effort, Owen has learned to disregard the naysayers and to keep persevering to not only help as many people as possible but to change the way people view the issue.

Sensei Helen, as her students call her, is a 75-year-old black belt, grandmother of 17 and the founder and instructor of C.H.A.M.P.S. American Karate, a program that uses karate to help children, teens and young adults with special needs. Dugan's classes are specifically designed for those facing Autism, Cerebral Palsy, ADHD, Down's Syndrome and more. Dugan works tirelessly to give these kids enriching, memorable experiences. She organizes and hosts two annual tournaments, a pool party at her house and a Fourth of July parade for those involved. To help fund C.H.A.M.P.S., she does the bookkeeping herself, runs a small thrift shop and has successfully hosted a formal fundraiser. Today, at a time when she could be relaxing and enjoying the rewards of a lifetime of hard work, Dugan continues to inspire all with her endless energy and commitment to her kids.

In 2004, Jennifer Goodman Linn was diagnosed with sarcoma – a rare form of cancer – and was told her odds of beating the disease were 50/50. Refusing to give up, Linn has endured through five heartbreaking recurrences, six courses of chemotherapy to shrink the tumors and five grueling surgeries to remove them over the past six years. Demonstrating true Energizer Bunny® spirit, she refuses to give up. Linn vowed that if she survived, she would do something to express her gratitude. What began as a small indoor cycling event with 50 teams in 2007 is now Cycle for Survival, a 500-team event and one of the fastest-growing cancer research fundraisers in the country. Linn’s determination, endless energy and positive attitude are an inspiration to everyone around her, as is the fact that she’s raised more than $5.0 million to provide hope to millions of patients.

In 1998, with the help of her sixth-grade students in Northville, Mich., Nedam founded Kids 4 Afghan Kids, a non-profit organization aimed at using education to help make the world a better place for boys and girls in Afghanistan. It took three years to raise enough funds to build the first six-room school in Wardak, Afghanistan, where many of the children love going to school so much they walk more than four hours to get there. Nedam didn’t stop there, however, and began raising funds to address other needs for the community. Kids 4 Afghan Kids has gone on to build two more schools, a medical clinic, orphanage, bakery and a guesthouse for the residents of the valley. Nedam has faced many obstacles, but she refuses to give up. Friends nominated her for the Energizer Keep Going® Hall of Fame, saying that through Nedam’s unwavering determination, countless lives have been changed forever.

Lee Marshall, a former local news anchor, focuses her “off-air” energy on promoting her non-profit organization, Kids to Love Foundation.  Growing up as a foster child adopted into a loving home at the age of 2, Marshall has made it her mission to help other foster children know the love of a forever family.  She used her career as a journalist to launch a segment called “Kids to Love,” which profiled children awaiting adoption.  An incredible 186 children were adopted as a result.  Through her foundation, Marshall gives foster children new backpacks filled with school supplies, fills Christmas wish lists and has granted nearly 150 college scholarships.  Due to her incredible service, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services named Marshall as one of its prestigious Angels in Adoption.  Since Kids to Love’s inception in 2004, Marshall has grown the organization to serve thousands of children across Alabama and Tennessee.

At 79 years young, Albert "Hollywood" Meggett was recently crowned the "King of Boxing" in Charleston, S.C., for giving 27 years of service to the youth in the community. He took an old firehouse and turned it into the Charleston Boxing Club. As a coach, mentor, educator and father, Meggett opens his doors Monday through Friday to youth and adults. There, he not only gives lessons on how to box but also on the importance of education, family, loyalty and giving back. He attends every one of his students' boxing tournaments and hosts training camp sessions in the summer. Meggett perseveres because he knows his efforts are helping to keep youth off the streets and out of trouble.

Patrick Ercole founded the Organization for Community Health Outreach (OCHO) to improve the healthcare infrastructure for remote areas in Honduras, in a way that empowers people to cultivate their community. For 10 years, he has been part of a medical mission team that brings health care and health education to one of the most underserved and remote areas of Honduras – a town called Atima. During the week-long clinics, more than 2,000 Hondurans are treated by the medical staff. Ercole’s work focuses on bringing quality acute medical care to those in need, coupled with preventative care for the larger Honduran population. To provide more permanent relief, he is now working to build a health center in Atima. Despite many who doubted his efforts could be successful, Ercole has shown that drive coupled with relentless pursuit can make any dream a tangible reality.

Rocco Fiorentino, a 13-year-old jazz musician, is dedicated to helping blind and visually-impaired children. Blind himself, he serves as an ambassador for The Little Rock Foundation, an organization his parents formed to help other families facing similar challenges. Advocating since he was 5 years old, Fiorentino has convinced New Jersey legislators to dedicate $1.2 million to Braille education and services in the state. He was also instrumental in establishing October as Blindness Awareness Month in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Fiorentino never stops - he speaks at schools, senior centers and a range of events to raise awareness for his cause and help ease the public's discomfort around people with disabilities.