Top honor eludes Norfolk nominee for CNN hero of the year

Norfolk resident Carolyn LeCroy, who turned her own prison sentence into a passion to help the children of incarcerated parents, will have to settle for remaining one of the Top 10 CNN Heroes of 2008.

The overall winner chosen through an online poll from the 10 "everyday hero" finalists was Liz McCartney of the New Orleans area, who helps Hurricane Katrina survivors rebuild their homes.

The choice was announced, and LeCroy and the other finalists celebrated, late Saturday in Hollywood during the taping of a celebrity-studded CNN awards ceremony to be broadcast at 9 p.m. Thursday.

LeCroy's "The Messages Project" in nine years has recorded some 3,000 video messages from Virginia inmates to their children for Mother's Day, Father's Day and the winter holidays. The goal is to help children cope with absent parents and to maintain family bonds that aid in released prisoners successfully re-entering society.

LeCroy said in a phone interview Sunday that she didn't feel like she lost. Her program will get international exposure, and several people Saturday, including celebrities such as actor Terrence Howard, told her they wanted to help with it, she said.

"The contacts and everything - it was unbelievable," she said. "It was good."

She and the other finalists already have won $25,000; the overall winner receives another $100,000.

LeCroy said earlier that, if she won, she would use the money to expand her program. She'd like to see it in other states and in the federal prison system.

"These children are the silent victims of that crime," LeCroy told a celebratory rally at Old Dominion University on Nov. 12. "They did nothing, and they deserve everything."

LeCroy was convicted of marijuana possession and conspiracy charges in Virginia Beach and Norfolk in 1995. She received 55 years overall, with six to serve, and won parole after 14 months.

Actress Meg Ryan presented LeCroy's finalist award.

LeCroy and her family attended a large after-party until 1 a.m., and she was to participate in a panel discussion concerning troubled children.

"It was almost overwhelming," she said.

The public cast more than 1 million online votes for the finalists that most inspired them in the CNN heroes program, in its second year.

CNN said it received 3,700 nominations from 75 countries. A panel of a dozen leaders and humanitarians - including the Queen of Jordan, Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, basketball star Magic Johnson, and chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall - chose the 10 finalists.

Along with LeCroy and winner McCartney, those finalists included a man who establishes free libraries and literacy programs in Ethiopia and a Philadelphia woman who started a running program for the homeless.

Matthew Bowers, (757) 222-3893, matthew.bowers@pilotonline.com