Medical recoveries that defy doctors and long odds.
Parents who fight for equal rights for their children. Soldiers who face the
enemy and whose bravery saves lives. Communities that respond to a neighbor in
need with emotional support, money, time and muscle.
These could be rough scripts for blockbuster Hollywood movies. Yet, they are
true stories of Morris County area residents who have inspired their communities
and beyond. These are the top inspirational stories of 2006.
10. Montville's Pathways
9. The Liquid Church
8. Mother, daughter reunited
7. Scott Harris shows progress
6. Heroin's tragic grasp
5. New life for Sacred Heart
4. Cathie Doroshenko
3. Medal-winning troops
2. Alicia Vitiello
1. Army Spc. Jim Benoit
Army Spc. Jim Benoit of Wharton was not expected to live -- and if he did, he
certainly would never walk again, doctors told his mother, Missy. Jim Benoit was
critically wounded on a Baghdad road in 2005, but in 2006, he showed his doctors
they were wrong, vindicating his mother's struggle to save his legs from
amputation.
Fourteen months after the improvised explosive device detonated under his
armored Humvee and across his backside -- leaving him permanently disabled --
Benoit, 24, walked down the aisle with just a cane to marry Pamela Callahan on
Nov. 18.
Benoit not only survived the attack, but came through 79 surgeries at Walter
Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. His remarkable recovery energized
his hometown to raise more than $40,000 for him and local government to donate
land for an accessible house to welcome him home. Construction is under way,
thanks to all-volunteer muscle and materials.
In the meantime, Benoit and his wife are living at Picatinny Arsenal in
Rockaway Township. They hope to move into their home next year, following his
80th surgery, scheduled in January.
