5 whose lives changed

Each of the these people has gone through memorable changes in 2005.

One has seen hard work and talent pay off in a lower crime rate in Lawrence; another has endured the public spotlight after standing up to his local school system, garnering praise and criticism. There is a family still getting adjusted in a new home that they never expected to afford, a high school football player who survived Hurricane Katrina and has settled into life in New England, and two students whose hopes of attending school without the maladies that afflicted them in the past have proven unattainable.

Through it all, like so many others who live in the communities covered by Globe NorthWest, each is moving forward, holding on to a unique brand of optimism, as they enter 2006.