Whether between two people, a community, or the world, a life lived for the greater good is bigger than one’s own well-being.

Out of a desire to live a life beyond herself, Ann Medlock founded the international Giraffe Project in 1982 to spotlight people who stick their necks out for the common good.

Based in Langley, over a thousand Giraffe’s have been honored to date, many of them featured in a K-12 curriculum that’s used in all 50 states and in English-speaking schools abroad.

“People need inspiration. We need genuine heroes to show us the way,” Medlock says.

Medlock herself is an inspiration, say Fritz and Vivienne Hull, the founders of Chinook and Whidbey Institute and the directors of Spirit of Legacy.

“Ann has tremendous courage and convictions. We met Ann in New York over 20 years ago as she was launching her Giraffe project. She was convinced that South Whidbey would be a supportive base for her Giraffe vision,” the couple recalls.

“Thankfully, she stuck her neck out and moved to South Whidbey. She has followed her calling and taken huge risks year after year to make the Giraffe Project an exemplary model of creative and compassionate citizenship. She has always believed that every one of us can make a difference, and that we must for the sake of our children and theirs.”

Medlock says she doesn’t believe in the idea that “we can’t help bring about peace in the world until we have peace within.”

“I’ll never have complete peace within, and the world can’t wait until we’re all that perfect,” she says. “We need to commit to take action.”

It’s like the movie hero Indiana Jones stepping out into the void, she explains. As the adventurer commits his weight to that forward foot, a stone step appears and supports him.

Medlock herself took that step of commitment when she started the Giraffe Project.

“Her life’s work has been built around a pair of simple, profound insights: A healthy society needs people to find the courage and generosity of spirit in themselves that allows them to stick their necks out for the common good. And celebrating the stories of ordinary people who find this courage strengthens these qualities in everyone who listens,” says Robert Gilman, founder of Context Institute and a Giraffe board member.

Medlock’s youthful laughter and openness naturally makes people feel both comfortable and entertained.

She and husband John live in a unique home where Medlock has painted each room in various colors. She shares each corner of their home, just as she does herself.

“I was a late bloomer, really, I didn’t find my calling until after I was 50,” she explains.

Her calling was a special skill at spotlighting heroes.

Medlock describes a Giraffe Hero.

“It isn’t about physical strength, beauty or talent. A great baseball player, or an accomplished actress — admirable but let’s not call such people heroes. They’re icons or idols. A true hero is someone who takes risks for the common good. Not for a personal accomplishment.”

It’s similar to South Whidbey’s Hometown Heroes in that it’s people who live exemplary daily lives, motivating others to their own greatness, and making life better for others.

The difference in a Giraffe is there must always be a risk involved. Risks can be physical, financial or social — a situation where someone is more likely ostracized for their actions instead of honored.

Medlock says sometimes these heroes must be willing to be seen as fools if they’re going to make a difference. A person’s mission or calling has to be louder than warnings or negative comments like “You don’t have the right degrees” or “You’re going to lose everything.”

As an example, Medlock uses the myth of the young Parsifal. Parsifal’s deep compassion for the suffering in the world led him to risk his life. All the great knights had failed to find the Holy Grail, the chalice used by Christ at the Last Supper and the only cure for blight on the land.

Parsifal was warned of the dangers involved, then ridiculed and told he was a fool to even try because he was totally unqualified to be a hero.

But he went into the dark forest alone, and this unqualified boy was the one to find the Holy Grail, ending all of the suffering.

Parsifal had a mission, a purpose greater than himself.

“I think this sense of mission, is what makes some men remember combat fondly. They may have been scared to death at the time, but they were sure what they were doing mattered,” Medlock says.

Living for the common good can give us a mission every day. The way we speak about and treat people in our every day lives, she says, can ultimately work for the common good. For instance, rather than trying to convince someone to think the same way we do, we can listen and try to understand their viewpoint.

In Medlock’s opinion, there are often good people on all sides of an issue. She says here on Whidbey there are caring developers, dedicated environmentalists, and good Republicans, Democrats and Libertarians. She doesn’t believe in demonizing a person or group of people because of a difference of opinions on an issue.

Medlock says, “I think every great spiritual leader has been trying to tell us the same thing — to love and forgive. Trusting the divine may be the hardest challenge of all. We’re sure we know what’s good or bad for us and for the world, but some blessings wear a helluva disguise.”

It was such a disguised blessing that brought Medlock to her current life.

“My former husband left me with two young children and lots of debts. I was so depressed, I couldn’t imagine anything good coming out of that situation. But if I hadn’t been dropped on my head like that, I wouldn’t have the life I have now. And to quote the great old film title, ‘It’s a wonderful life.’”

“Ann is out in front as an unabashed promoter for people who stand as the conscience for the common good,” says Ross Chapin, a Langley architect. “Ann’s been given a vision for a world with truth, justice and beauty. And she’s given herself unceasingly to this vision. Let us all say, ‘Hurrah!” — and then take action in our own lives to live for the greater good and make the world a better place.”