Giving up their lunch break to organize a hot dog sale, two women gave hope to a family in need and brought the Boone County community together.

Georgeann Cook, of Hewett, and Janet Dent, of Madison, are familiar fixtures in the Boone County Magistrate Court — with nine and 30 years on the job, respectively.

Both are magistrate clerks at the Boone County Courthouse, where tickets and criminal complaints are constantly being shuffled from their desks.

Their offices are located in the basement of the courthouse, tucked away with marginal sunlight filtering into their shared workspace.

The women do not wear badges or capes, they do not have the ability to leap over tall buildings in a single bound, nor do they have super strength and speed.

They’re not your comic book version of super heroes — but they most assuredly are heroes.

This past Spring the dynamite duo became heroes to the family of Jimmy Huffman, whose grandson, Brayden, lost an eye in his fight with cancer.

A young boy, Brayden was just 3 years old when he was diagnosed with cancer.

The family’s doctors said that little Brayden would lose his eye.

The family’s insurance company said they would not pay for little Brayden to get an artificial eye. They claimed that it was considered “cosmetic,” and not covered under the family’s policy.

It was in that dismal moment, when Huffman shared the news with Cook, that the idea for a fundraiser began.

“Jimmy came in here that morning and asked us to pray for his grandson. He said that he didn’t have any medical coverage that would pay for the artificial eye. At that time the family was traveling to Pennsylvania for treatments and there were a lot of expenses,” she recalls.

“What the hot dog sale did was get the ball rolling. This put the word out there that there was a need,” she said.

Together, during their lunch break, the women created flyers and distributed them to local

businesses.

Using faxes and email, word of the fundraiser began to spread.

Soon, the women said they were receiving

donations in the form of supplies — everything from paper to hot dogs — from various community businesses.

“There was just too many people involved, I feel it is unfair to just name us,” Cook said.

Despite stormy weather, the community answered the call to service.

“It rained, yet people were lined up at the door. Even when we ran out of hot dogs, the community members were putting money in the box,” Dent shared.

“We would have done it for anybody who needed help,” Dent said.

This past Thursday both Dent and Cook were honored as WSAZ’s Hometown Heroes.

They were nominated for this special recognition by Magistrate Chuck Byrnside, and were surprised by a small celebration at the courthouse.

A smiling Brayden and his family were in attendance.

“Just getting to meet him was great, you could tell during the celebration that he had no idea that this was all for him,” Cook said of Brayden.

“My first thought when they told me was wondering, ‘why’d they nominate me?’ I was surprised and honored, but I had forgotten all about it [the fundraiser] and I was wondering whose birthday it was,” Dent said of the surprise party in their honor.

Dent, who is a cancer survivor, and who has lost family members to breast cancer, said that it is a shame insurance companies consider artificial eyes for people who have lost them to cancer, “cosmetic.”

“Insurance companies used to say the same thing for women with breast cancer until around 1996,” Dent said, further noting that hopefully with increased awareness and lobbying, insurance companies will change their policies.