"Heroes" is a word easily diluted by overuse. That fact makes itself blazingly clear in this particular week, when the nation honors true heroes in the plainest sense of the word: veterans who risked everything for freedom, for country, for all of us to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

When we honor battlefield veterans it is customary to thank them for their service, but words are only half of it. Real gratitude means unselfishly exercising the freedoms those heroes protected, in the spirit of serving the common good as they did. Those who serve at home, through years of peace and plenty but also in the hard times when a neighbor can be a lifeline, are another kind of hero. They sustain what others have secured.

We can thank Salem for reminding us of this. The small southeastern Connecticut town (pop. around 4,100) has been honoring and thanking its local civic heroes in waves over the past 30 years. Sunday was the latest.

Making the Salem Unsung Heroes Awards program an even more compelling example for other communities is its genesis. In 1989 the town's Republican and Democratic town committees established the first awards as a way to honor citizen volunteers. The criteria for nomination to go from unsung hero to sung hero includes longtime commitment to service, volunteering in a variety of ways over time, and doing it so matter-of-factly that it's like sleight of hand. One sign of a worthy candidate is when committee members look at the resumé in the nomination and say, "I never knew he/she worked on that, too."

This community story just keeps getting more apt as a way for dealing with today's generic divisiveness. So far, there have been 87 unsung heroes under a program that the two political parties made into a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization. Each recipient of the award is invited to become a member of the self-renewing board of directors. The two town party chairs serve ex officio, providing institutional memory but not steering the decisions.

Lee Cole-Chu, a Salem resident who helped start the awards and a state judge trial referee, wrote in this year's ceremony program that "The original motivation for these awards applies no less now, in Salem’s bicentennial year: bringing townsfolk together to honor some of Salem’s quiet but extraordinary volunteers and to celebrate the altruism and volunteer spirit which are essential to the town’s quality of life." The aim, according to Chairman Hugh McKenney, is to perpetuate the very spirit that inspired the program in the first place — quite a challenge in a time when volunteerism has shrunk.

Thirty years back may seem like the golden days of community service, compared to now, and bipartisan initiatives may seem like the stuff of legend. But part of the purpose of starting the Unsung Heroes Awards was to remedy polarization in town politics at the time. In a small community, badmouthing the opposition meant siding against the guy down the street or another PTO mother. It boded badly for the small-town tradition of putting politics aside between elections.

The contributions of this year's class of heroes don't read like heroics as we may think of the term. Included is much elected and appointed public service — Planning and Zoning Commission, boards of education and finance. Lest we forget, those are volunteer jobs, best done by people whose aim is to do the right thing. But among the 11 honored this year, there is no one who has tried to do only one thing right; the same people are Lions, coaches, knitters, library volunteers and more.

These latest Salem Unsung Heroes honorees are Elbert Burr, Christina F. Grillo, Janet Griggs, Dan Holle, George Householder, David Kennedy, Pamela Munro, Robert Neddo, Linda K. Schroeder, Sandra Teixeira and Charles Weston.

The sum, of course, is greater than the parts. If 11 people merit a nomination — and there were many more nominated as well — and if they have earned the respect of their predecessors and others in town, what does that say about Salem? That the community knows what it has, and trusts that selflessness can be handed on. The hope is that future generations will follow, and that will keep homegrown heroism alive.

The Day editorial board meets with political, business and community leaders to formulate editorial viewpoints. It is composed of President and Publisher Timothy Dwyer, Executive Editor Izaskun E. Larraneta, Owen Poole, copy editor, and Lisa McGinley, retired deputy managing editor. The board operates independently from The Day newsroom.