Every town has its heroes.

More often than not, you never learn their names. Not all heroes wear capes, and we believe an overwhelming majority of the real heroes in our lives clad themselves in nothing more grand than cloaks of anonymity.

That’s why we’re bringing back something special: A chance for each of you to tell us about someone who qualifies as the “Yolo County Hero” in your eyes.

(Keep reading. In addition to some well-deserved recognition, there’s money involved here.)

First, we’ll note that real heroes take on many shapes and sizes, and they’re usually a far cry from the perfectly sculpted action figures we grew up watching in the movies. Instead, in our eyes, our true heroes are many of the regular people we see doing regular things every day.

It might be the home health care worker providing much-needed companionship for our senior citizens, the firefighter or police officer putting his or her life on the line to keep the rest of us safe, or the Little League coach donating his time on behalf of our kids (while putting up with everything else that entails).

Last year, Woodland native Paul Bridge was named the inaugural “Yolo County Hero” for his efforts to renovate two Woodland residents’ homes.

So, today, we’re asking for your assistance once again in helping us identify a few.

The Woodland Daily Democrat, in a joint project with a dozen other north state newspapers that are part of the California Newspaper Partnership, is asking its readers to nominate people for the second-ever “Yolo County Heroes” feature.

Here’s how: Just send an email to both heroes@dailydemocrat.com and news@dailydemocrat.com and tell us who you’d like to nominate and why.

We’ll convene a panel to review the entries, and in early January we will announce five finalists and write stories on each, highlighting their “heroic” acts.

From there, by mid-February, we’ll choose one as the winner, honoring that person as the second-ever “Yolo County Hero.”

The overall winner will receive a $500 cash prize, an honor that will be repeated for other “Heros” throughout our north state newspaper group from Monterey to Eureka.

How you choose your hero and what criteria you want to establish for your hero is entirely up to you. You can send us an email about anyone you see as someone who does great things for other people, or animals, or the environment or anything you consider hero-worthy. We’ll give equal consideration to heroes who perform their extraordinary feats behind the scenes, and those who are paid to do it.

Nominations are due Sunday, Jan 5.

From there, we will pick five finalists, who we’ll honor in a series of stories beginning in the Sunday editions of our paper before announcing our overall “hero” by February.

The everyday heroics of people doing great things behind the scenes have always been a big part of what makes Yolo County such a special place to live. We’re looking forward to receiving your nominations and sharing their stories.

After all, not all heroes wear capes.

To nominate a hometown hero, please send an email to heroes@dailydemocrat.com and news@dailydemocrat.com.