Not often enough is there a chance to shine the spotlight on people who make a positive contribution to society. Fortunately, one of those moments came when the Harmony Movement Group held an awards banquet in honour of Sol Guy and Josh Thome. These two are the co-founders of the Vancouver-based documentary TV series "4REAL", which sends celebrities around the world to embrace the lives of people working hard to create social change in their respective countries.

"Any award or any recognition we get makes me excited," Sol Guy said about the receiving the 2009 Harmony Award. "It's a testament to the people that we work with, to the leaders we feature in our shows. It's recognition of what they do."

Throughout the banquet, Harmony had many guests address the crowd about the effect that each award winner has had on his or her own community. The Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, David Onley, spoke about the accomplishments of both Josh Thome and Sol Guy. There were also performances by Juno-nominated Zaki Ibrahim, DJ Nana and Waleed Abdulhamid Kush, among many others.

In addition Harmony gave honours to Beverly Muir, the principal of Humberwood Downs Jr. Middle Academy. "For me, this is humbling," Muir said as she was given the 2009 Educator Award. Chris D'Souza, a professor at York University received the 2009 Leadership in Education Award. "Although there's many good things, we still need everybody to unite, create alliances," D'Souza said. "If there are gaps in services, we have to address them and remove the barriers."

Near the end of the night, it was time to recognize and give thanks to Sol and Josh of "4REAL". Their speech and accompanying slideshow gave the audience a taste of what they've done along with more footage about the people they've met through their show. Everyone left the banquet with a better sense of community -- not only for the communities surrounding them, but more so for the world as a whole.

Words by. Shaun Bolden