Today's Providence Journal A-1 centerpiece is a story for cynical times.

Martha and Waitstill Sharp were New England Yankees who risked their own lives to save hundreds, perhaps thousands of artists, intellectuals, liberals, Jews and children from the Nazis in 1939 and 1940. Think Schindler's List with Providence-born Martha distracting customs officials.

In June they will be only the second and third Americans honored by Israel as "Righteous Among the Nations" in the holocaust memorial park at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem.

This is our Flash slideshow about the Sharps, narrated by Journal columnist Mark Patinkin and created by projo.com multimedia designer Kathy DeVault. The html portion -- Mark's full story, a guestbook for the Sharps and links to more info about them -- is here, probably requiring Belo registration. Frank Carnevale and Tom Heslin also helped shaped the final package; Mike Foran, Beth Heaney and Donna McGarry had a hand in it, and Andrea Panciera cleared my path. (Disclosure: I produced this, but the Sharps' story is what's compelling and why I blog it.)

The Sharps' work founded the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, which even today tries to prevent genocide in places like Darfur. Richard C. Campbell of UUSC shared with us historical photos and news clippings from the group's archives.

(Update: UUSC has a blog: Hotwire, "a human rights weblog.")

Every once in a while in life, if you're lucky, you get to be part of something unambiguously good.