The Independent on Sunday Happy List: Eight years, 800 people, one cause - to recognise those who give back

Sometimes it takes an outsider to make you realise what your real values are. Some 10 years or so ago, senior IoS staff were whisked off to a Hertfordshire hotel for one of those dreadful corporate away days. During the afternoon, we were lectured by a style journalist about the errors of our woolly liberal ways, and chided for our lack of interest in gadgets, bling and other shiny things. Giving an example of what we could be writing about – which would, he assured us, pep up our too-worthy paper no end – he cited a £1,000 watch. A hand was raised at the back. It belonged to staff writer Cole Moreton. "Surely," he said, "the whole point of The Independent on Sunday is to be a paper for people who aren't interested in £1,000 watches." A murmur of agreement rippled round the room.

The man of style went on his way, no doubt thinking we were incurable. I was left with other thoughts. What more could we do to champion the values that had so appalled our guest speaker? As it happened, an annual newspaper ritual was The Sunday Times Rich List – a catalogue of those who had made or inherited vast sums. Well, putting celebrities and the mega-rich on a plinth and genuflecting before them was no more our style than £1,000 watches. An antidote to this wealth worship was needed, and my idea was this: we would have a list of those who enriched the country or their communities, rather than themselves. It would chronicle 100 people who gave back to society rather than took from it: charity founders, volunteers, carers, fundraisers, youth mentors, conservationists and other such selfless folk.

Tristan Davies, then editor, gave me the go-ahead and so, in April 2008, The Happy List was born. Since then, every year we have found truly inspiring and previously unsung people to celebrate. Among them: Birdie McDonald from north London, who has fostered more than 850 children; lifeboat volunteers such as Ian Johns from East Sussex, who, in 37 years of service, responded to 630 emergencies, helping save 337 lives; Barbara Wragg, a Sheffield woman who gave to charity much of her £7.6m Lottery win; Carole Hicks, a Hertfordshire lollipop lady who, for 30 years, gave each of the children she saw across the road a birthday present and handmade card; wacky fundraisers such as Doris Long, an 85-year-old abseiler, and Flo and Jim Essex, a Somerset couple who raised £160,000 by, among other things, lying on a bed of nails; Robin Standing, an Edmonton volunteer with the Red Cross for 58 years; Ben Bell, a London youth worker who set up Urban Hope, which helps 150 disadvantaged youngsters a week; Ray Coe, a London teacher who donated a kidney to save the life of a pupil; Fred Richardson, volunteering with the Royal British Legion for 66 years; Fred and Vivian Morgan, so horrified by the suicide of a bullied girl that they converted their 10-bedroom Warwickshire home into a school for troubled pupils; and Jenni Thomas, who founded Child Bereavement UK, which has helped huge numbers of families; former gang members who now keep kids out of trouble; the man who created Britain's first Fairtrade town; and sick children who have raised millions for the hospital that treated them.

Successive editors John Mullin and Lisa Markwell gave the Happy List every support, and, under Lisa, we teamed up with Just Giving and the Grange St Paul's Hotel in London, where for the past two years we have had a party for Happy Listers. Media in Australia, India, Italy and US have produced their own versions, and, a few years ago, I began to work with Bristol's Happy City Initiative to encourage cities to have their own Happy Lists. So far, Bristol and Brighton have one, and Bath and Nottingham are among others that may join them.

The Happy City Initiative and I are determined that the Happy List will continue – keep an eye on independent.co.uk for new developments. And along the way, we'll ensure that the values of the readers and staff of the paper where it began live on.