Every year this city and region benefit from thousands of people who give their time, money and talents to make ours a more compassionate, more prosperous and more livable place. For 24 years the Observer editorial pages have offered annual examples of people whose deeds we applaud. From then-Mayor Harvey Gantt in 1985 to philanthropists Sandra and Leon Levine in 2002 to anti-hunger fighters Beverly Howard and Marilyn Marks in 2008, we highlight just a few, in hopes they will remind us of the many, many more who make comparable contributions. The year just past, 2009, was a time of extraordinary needs. And ordinary people responded with extraordinary generosity. May their examples inspire us as we begin the New Year.

Dr. Martha Iley

It's been 25 years since musician Martha Iley and two other women decided they wanted to take their music to people who had to be in places where music isn't very common: prisons, nursing homes, adult day care centers, hospitals and homeless shelters. Iley, 84 - a retired church minister of music who still teaches piano - has been involved ever since, providing music and devotionals. The all-volunteer group that's now called Metropolitan Music Ministries has given almost 10,000 programs, and touched at least 415,000 people. "It's our labor of love," Iley says, "just a joyful thing." She adds, "It's wonderful to do music all your life."

Ron Ahlert

Chef Ron Ahlert, the executive director of the nonprofit Community Culinary School of Charlotte, has a voice like a Marine drill sergeant and a heart that's more like the Pillsbury Doughboy. Three times a year, for 12- to 14-week sessions, he takes 25 students and gets them ready for jobs in food service. The students come from all kinds of tough backgrounds, from poverty and addiction to joblessness. In Chef Ron they find more than a teacher. They find a straight-talker and a mentor whose guidance goes much farther than how to hold a knife. Plenty of people now have jobs today in Charlotte's restaurant kitchens because of Ron Ahlert.

Ernestine Simpson

Ernestine Simpson is the go-to person in her Mooresville neighborhood. For years she has been something like a taxi without a fare, driving neighbors to the store and doctors' appointments, though she herself endures chronic pain and survived a bout with breast cancer in 2004. Her own car quit in September, yet she still found a way to get people the rides they need: She borrows her daughter's or niece's car. "Whatever is needed, I try my best to do," she says. Simpson, 54, also volunteers countless hours at her church, Tabernacle Joy Ministry in Mooresville. Sometimes her pain is so bad it's difficult for her to get out of bed in the morning. But she knows her mission - "for the glory of God" - is to get up and help people.

Ayofemi Hunter Kirby

Ayofemi Kirby was in a coffee shop when she was recruited for a new project, called Generation Engage, to get young people more involved in Charlotte's civic and political life. The West Charlotte High School and UNC Chapel Hill graduate quickly said, "Sign me up!" In the year since, she put her journalism and history degree to work, starting as a volunteer and becoming community director of the group's Charlotte office. On Jan. 11, the group changes its name and becomes part of Mobilize, a national network dedicated to educating young people and increasing their civic and political participation. Kirby will be the program manager in Charlotte, and the group has already launched a project with Central Piedmont Community College. It's Democracy 365, aiming to help students learn about issues such as education, energy and the economy and to spur service projects. The movement to get more young people engaged is "really catching momentum," she said.

Patrice Komlan-Messan Ognodo

As an immigrant who moved with his wife and children from the West African nation of Togo, Patrice Ognodo knows how hard it is for non-English-speaking immigrants to navigate the bureaucratic byways of life in America. Even those who learned British English can struggle with American speech. Refugees get resettlement help, he notes, but for immigrants who arrive by seeking asylum, "You are on your own." In 2005 he founded the nonprofit Neighborhood Good Samaritan Center to help African refugees adjust to life here. The center offers tutoring - currently helping 60 kids ages 7 to 14 - as well as help with life skills and advocacy.

Andreas Bechtler

Even before the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art opens tomorrow it is already a gift to our city. The building itself, by Swiss architect Mario Botta, embellishes South Tryon Street, with its red-clay exterior and large, fourth-floor display room cantilevered over a plaza. Nearby perches the glittering "Firebird" sculpture by artist Niki de Saint Phalle, unveiled Nov. 3, already attracting camera-toting visitors to its mirrored arch. All this comes courtesy of Andreas Bechtler, a Swiss-born businessman and artist, who in 2003 offered to make his family's modern art collection available to the public, in what became the Bechtler Museum. He could have put it anywhere. He wanted it in Charlotte, his adopted city. "My heart," he says, "is here."

John Lassiter and Anthony Foxx

Charlotte voters last year experienced something not many U.S. cities do: A mayoral campaign between two intelligent, personable, well-informed elected officials with reputations for integrity. An electorate jaded by national partisanship, distortions and unsavory campaign tactics saw that it is, indeed, possible to run a campaign honorably. Yes, they disagreed on some things, but neither Republican John Lassiter nor Democrat Anthony Foxx, both at-large City Council members, took the low road against his opponent. Instead, they showed up at an unprecedented number of public debates and forums. In all, it was a fine demonstration of democracy at its best. The city owes both men a cheer.

Carlos Evans

At a time when his bank, Wachovia, was in distress and then gobbled by Wells Fargo, executive Carlos Evans was neck-deep in another crisis: chairing the board of United Way of Central Carolinas - possibly the most thankless job in town. In many people's minds the venerable charity was badly tainted in 2008 by revelations that its board approved more than $1.2 million in pay for then-CEO Gloria Pace King. The double-whammy of the pay scandal and the fall's financial crisis sent UW donations into a nose-dive, forcing big cuts in funding for its 90-some member agencies. For months Evans was its chief apologist/spokesman/reformer, badgered by journalists and assailed by an angry public. Yet when he steps off the board today he leaves a new executive director, Jane McIntyre, a new and smaller board and giant steps along the long path toward regaining community trust in the agency. Evans recalls how former Wachovia CEO Ken Thompson asked him back in 2006 or 2007 to get in line to be board chair. "If I'd known then what I know now," he says, "I would do it again."

Ana Jofre and Jeff Taylor

It began with an art class, and some discussion about performance art. Ana Jofre, assistant professor of physics at UNC Charlotte, was taking the class and she thought, "I'd love to organize one of those." Her friend, freelance writer and painter Jeff Taylor, loved the idea. The duo set up a Facebook group and began spreading the word. "It just really took off," Jofre says. And thus was born Charlotte Flash Mob, an informal and sporadic event in which anyone who wants to shows up at a designated place and time to do silly things together. In a city occasionally accused of being whimsy-challenged, we applaud anyone who can get folks of all ages to show up to blow bubbles in a Lynx rail car, or to converge, in costumes, at an uptown crosswalk. "Charlotte is really thirsty for this kind of thing," Jofre says. "We're at a really exciting time right now."