Age: 47

Catherine McInnes challenges pupils to help those in need.

OCCUPATION: Elementary school teacher

PROFILE: McInnes is a teacher loved by her pupils. She makes them more aware of the needs of others and challenges them to do something. She runs a Me to We club at school. It meets once a week to make items that are sold to buy desks for a school in Tanzania. She also works with a group called Help Lesotho. And she has helped My Sister's Place in London with fundraising, too. McInnes donates her time and talent as a singer-songwriter to her causes and sometimes conscripts other willing musicians as well. As if this isn't enough, she brings good times to Londoners as artistic director of the Home County Folk Festival.

MOTIVATION: A teacher for 20 years, McInnes enjoys working with big groups of people, organizing large events and making things happen.

QUOTE: "I'm addicted to doing things. It's just the way I'm wired. When something moves me, I can't help being passionately involved."

From information submitted by Julia Hamilton-Hicks, a teaching colleague.