It doesn’t take much more than cursory read of the magazines lining supermarket checkout aisles to realize one simple truth of modern times: activism sells.

You see evidence of it in the entertainment industry quite often, and especially more now where celebrities’ private lives are included in the promotion of whatever they happen to be involved in.

Far be it from me to judge anyone’s motive for doing charity work. But I can’t help but notice that, so often, the singer with a sudden interest in Africa’s orphaned children is the same one whose album hits the stores next week. The actor you hear on the morning talk show publicizing the effect of landmines on a small impoverished Asian country? It just so happens he has a movie — or two — coming out this summer.

Again, the ends are wonderful here. I just sometimes question the motive.

Perhaps this is why it is such a distinct pleasure to be able to introduce two people in our pages this week who have been quietly and deliberately changing the world for the better for years. They’ve been doing it right here in Powhatan and they’ve been doing it with little to no fanfare.

They have no movies to promote or books to sell – and I doubt either has ever been asked for an autograph—but the work they do has an impact even they themselves may never know.

Of course, to say we are introducing them would be only half correct. Liz Benton and Connie Moslow have been known as activists in this community for years. Benton, who is currently serving as the honorary chairperson for Relay For Life, has selflessly devoted herself to this cause for years, as well as to the Powhatan Coalition of Churches.

Moslow, who was chosen last week as the Citizen of the Year, has worked tirelessly for years on issues ranging from education to community health. It is Moslow we have to thank for the County’s first free health clinic, which began serving residents just a few moths ago.

We owe them a debt of gratitude, not just for what they have done but for how they have done it. It is people like them, who are willing to put forth effort for a cause, knowing it may go unnoticed and unheralded, that make so many positive changes possible.