S ome people make a show of wearing their spirit of caring on their sleeves. Others go more quietly and diligently about the business of doing good.

Linda Hubbard definitely falls in the latter category. We can think of no more appropriate recipient of the Cornerstone of the Community Award, which the United Way of Moore County will bestow on her at a Jan. 26 banquet.

We confess to a certain degree of prejudice where Hubbard is concerned. She happens to be married to gentlemanly retiree John Hubbard, who served for years as advertising director of The Pilot. But in her own right, she has earned a place in the top rank of local benefactors through her involvement and leadership in any number of worthy causes over a period of several decades.

Among many other activities, Hubbard has worked as volunteer coordinator for the Moore County school system and held key positions in the Moore County Literacy Council, Moore Humane, the Retired Volunteer Senior Program, BackPack Pals and the local branch of the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina.

It is hard to imagine what a better place this world would be if the rest of us all went about the business of bettering the lives of others as lovingly and systematically as Linda Hubbard has done. She is a community cornerstone indeed.