Big grocery store chains have all but wiped out the hometown touch of mom and pop grocers.

However, there is one exception: Tom's Supermarket in the eastern Kanawha County town of Chesapeake. For all he does to keep that hometown touch alive and thriving, Calvin Canterbury is this week’s hometown hero.

The grocery store has been in operation since 1968. Sonny Cox owned it until 2003.

When Tom's Supermarket in Chesapeake changed hands, the regular customers were a little worried.

Instead, Calvin Canterbury made it his business to ensure nothing would change.

When Janet Adkins Ragalyi wrote WSAZ a letter about Calvin, she mentioned something extraordinary: something that truly makes Calvin an unassuming hero in his hometown.

"If someone came into the store and needed groceries, but had no money, Calvin would tell them to get what they needed and pay later, for he has thousands in grocery receipts tacked to the wall that are unpaid, but he keeps doing the same thing," Ragalyi said.

Calvin found out just how much his new community could give back, when his only son was killed in a motorcycle crash this spring. Brian Canterbury was just 24 years old.

Now, a part of Brian still runs the aisles of Tom's Supermarket.