Every city has a few standard defining characteristics, such as boundaries on a map, schools, businesses and public spaces. But what really sets one place apart from another is its sense of community and the people who participate in it.
Decatur is shaped by the people who show up, both in visible ways and in quieter ways you may never see. They clean up roadways, serve on committees, coach youth sports teams, collect food for hungry families, and contribute in countless other ways. It’s that willingness to be there for neighbors that helps make a place feel distinctly its own.
The City of Decatur formally recognizes that spirit through its Hometown Heroes program. In 1996, the city held the Hometown to the World Festival during the Atlanta Olympic Games, with hundreds of volunteers helping make it a success. When the festival was over, the city honored those volunteers, beginning a tradition that has continued for decades. Thirty years later, Decatur once again relied on volunteers to help welcome visitors to WatchFest ’26 during the World Cup.
Over the years, hundreds of people have been named Hometown Heroes, and their contributions look as different as the people themselves. Some help organize major events. Others quietly improve a school, neighborhood, or organization. They contribute time, ideas, professional expertise, or they simply pitch in when something needs to be done.
Some people contribute with the skills they already have. For Carol Ellis Morgan, that has included using her skills as a lawyer, including writing the bylaws when she and her neighbors created the Westchester Neighborhood Association. When her daughter started school at Westchester Elementary, Carol noticed there wasn’t much for the children to play on at the playground. “We’d get out with a little red wagon and go around the neighborhood collecting donations, and making people aware that we needed a better playground, which would help the community as well as the school,” Carol remembers. “So we raised money, and the city agreed to match what we raised.” With those funds, they were able to add play equipment to the playground, which benefited both the school and the neighborhood.
Carol continued to show up for her community over the years, serving on boards and committees for organizations including the Decatur YMCA and as the Decatur representative on the DeKalb County Library Board. She also supported Decatur schools and the early Decatur Education Foundation, among other efforts. But Carol emphasizes that none of those things happened because of one person. “There were always other people,” she says. “I could help organize. I could help fundraise, but there were always a lot of other people who had some great visions, too.”
That, she says, is one of the rewards of getting involved. Working alongside other people doesn’t only accomplish a task. It creates relationships. “You really get to know your neighbors, and you really get to know people in the community when you get involved in these hands-on projects,” Carol says.
Sometimes showing up begins not with a particular need, but with something a person already loves. When Adam Pinsley moved to Decatur in 2011, getting involved was partly a way to meet people in his new community. After chatting with someone while watching a lacrosse game at Universal Joint in Oakhurst, Adam eventually got connected with longtime Decatur lacrosse coach Don Rigger, who asked whether Adam would be interested in helping coach the Decatur High School team.
For Adam, who had played lacrosse in high school and college, the answer was easy. That initial yes turned into years of coaching. He spent more than a decade with the boys lacrosse program before moving to the girls team. Adam says coaching was about much more than winning games. Players may remember some big wins and losses, he says, but what stays with them are often the experiences and relationships they had along the way. “Nothing made me happier than seeing them succeed,” Adam says. “It was always more about helping them grow.”
Over time, one interest connected to another. Adam is also an artist and designer, and he began creating artwork for the annual Run With the Dogs fundraiser. He later combined art and lacrosse in a project with the girls team, attaching a canvas to the front of a lacrosse goal and letting players throw paint-covered balls against it to create a collaborative piece. His community involvement grew, too. He served on Decatur’s Active Living Board, helped advocate for recreational amenities at Legacy Park, and used his design skills to create the park’s wayfinding signage. Adam says one of the easiest ways to begin contributing to your local community is to start with something that already matters to you. “If you’re passionate about something, there’s going to be somebody in Decatur that’s passionate about it as well,” he says.
When Adam was named a Hometown Hero in 2025, the recognition surprised him. He hadn’t known he had been nominated. But one of his favorite parts of the honor came later, at the ceremony, when members of the girls lacrosse team arrived to support him. The people he had spent years showing up for had shown up for him.
That spirit of being there for others in your community extends beyond the city limits, too. In nearby Medlock Park, Sam McChesney has seen how quickly one person’s effort can turn into something much larger when neighbors are given an easy way to help. Several years ago, Sam learned that people staying at DeKalb County warming centers on extremely cold nights weren’t consistently given hot meals. She began reaching out to restaurants for donated food and organizing volunteers to deliver it. Community Q BBQ alone donated hundreds of meals, she recalls. Eventually, the county began providing hot food itself, making her donation program unnecessary. “That was a win,” Sam says. “At the end of the day, that’s what you want.”
That experience was one of many ways Sam has connected people willing to give with people who need something. Her neighborhood Giving Tree began with the idea of sponsoring 10 children during the holidays. The first year, neighbors ended up giving gifts for about 100 kids. The program grew again, eventually supporting hundreds of children, with bags of gifts taking over rooms in Sam’s home while neighbors pitched in to help organize them.
Each child’s list on the Giving Tree includes a want, a need, and a snack, and Sam checks each donation to make sure it works for the child receiving it. One night, Sam realized several donated bicycles still needed to be assembled before they could be delivered the next morning. She put out a request for help around 11 p.m. Neighbors picked the bikes up from her porch, and by morning, they were back, built and topped with bows. “I just put needs out in the neighborhood, and they’re filled every time,” Sam says.
That trust has allowed the effort to grow. Sam works with local mutual-aid organizations, including Feet of Clay, Blessing Bags of Warmth, and Giving Grace. She’s also created Medlock Park Cares, a Facebook group where organizations can share needs with residents who want to help. Her systems make volunteering simple for people who may not have hours to spare. A neighbor might pick up a few extra groceries and leave a meal kit on a porch. Someone else might sponsor a child online. Another person might know how to build a bike, take photos, donate storage space, or sort bags.
Sam says she often hears from people who say they’ve always wanted to help but didn’t know where to start. It might begin with one person who notices something, such as a playground that needs equipment, a teenager who needs a coach, a neighbor who needs a meal. But that person tells somebody else. Someone says yes. Another person brings a skill, an idea, a donation or an hour of time. Gradually, an individual act becomes something collective.
Carol says people sometimes underestimate how much is possible when they start with one idea and invite others in. “Don’t feel like you’re by yourself,” she says. “There’s so much support out here to do things.” Adam describes something similar. Getting involved opened up a network of people and experiences he might never otherwise have encountered. Years later, those relationships are part of what makes Decatur feel like home.
For Sam, who has lived in communities around the country, that sense of neighbor-to-neighbor support is what makes her corner of the greater Decatur area special. “I’ve never experienced anything like this,” she says. “This is the true definition of neighbors.” That’s a large part of what defines a community. Not lines on a map, but the people who notice each other, see what’s needed, and decide they can help. And they show up.
Decatur will thank those who keep showing up for others when the 2026 Hometown Heroes are named in December.
“You really get to know your neighbors, and you really get to know people in the community when you get involved in these hands-on projects." Carol Ellis Morgan