This weekend the Young Progressives honoured the three men this year selected as National Heroes in a ceremony outside City Hall.Dr EF Gordon, Pauulu Kamarakafego (Roosevelt Browne), and Sir Henry “Jack” Tucker were each celebrated for their contributions to Bermuda with song and prayer on Saturday, with family members being given ‘heroes papers’.During the ceremony, Hamilton Mayor Charles Gosling stressed the importance of remembering those who made Bermuda the country that it is today.“Honouring, recognising and celebrating Bermuda’s national heroes is vitally important to our community,” Mr Gosling said.“While we should not be ruled by the past, the best way forward to the future is to at least look backwards, towards that past. The more that we learn about it and our heroes, the stronger we can become as a nation.”Community activist Dr Eva Hodgson said she was pleased to hear that civil rights champion Dr Browne was selected as a national hero, saying that his role in promoting universal franchise was vital in allowing many other figures to make an impact.“In many ways, he has done more for this country than many others by the simple act of getting people together to eventually get universal franchise,” Dr Hodgson said.“Much that has happened since, and many who have been credited for their contributions could not have made that contribution without first having universal franchise.“He was a nonconformist, and because he was indifferent to status, even the black people who benefited from him do not give him his due.”Discussing Sir Henry, the Island’s third Premier, Senator Michael Dunkley said the politician and family man never lost his connections to the community. “He still rode his bike to the Cabinet Office every morning,” Sen Dunkley said. “He was never interested in the trappings of the office he had, he served the people of Bermuda.“I consider him a family man, a business man and most importantly a community man, a man who sacrificed much of his life to serve the people of Bermuda.”Child author Maliakah Abdul-Jabbar meanwhile read Dr Gordon’s life story, stretching from his birth in Trinidad to his role as a labour leader in Bermuda.The three will he honoured again at the National Heroes Day Proclamation Ceremony on June 19 in the Show Ring of the Botanical Gardens.