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[This month's Blogging for Books #14 topic is "Superheros". As stated before, I found I can only blog when I feel inspired by something. Having never read a comic book or watched related animation, I debated if this topic was something I could write about. But, alas, I've been inspired.]

On Tuesday, as we traveled back from our end-of-the-summer long weekend getaway, we discussed how we could donate our efforts to Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief. Feeling guilty that we had not yet donated our TIME, we tried to rationalize that by listing all the ways in which we had donated other things - we donated blankets and money to a local radio station's efforts, we're running charity auctions online, our house has been added to a list offering temporary residence to evacuees, and we've donated blood (and after being told that we cannot donate again for another 56 days, I marked my calender to donate on that 57th day). But on Tuesday, we just wanted to spend the day together for some well-needed family time.

Then the call came. They needed help, they needed volunteers.

This was God's way of telling us it was time to step up and give our TIME. I hit the gas, we had to hurry. Along the way, we made arrangements for Jess' sister to babysit Sydney. During the remainder of the ride, we tried to explain to Sydney that Mommy and Momma had to go help people. She wasn't too happy about us leaving her, but she must have understood a little, because she didn't put up a fuss. We stopped at home to quickly change clothes. And we were off. Thirty minutes later, we arrived at a local sports center-turned-homeless shelter for hundreds of refugees from the New Orleans area.

Jess, donned in scrubs and a stethescope, headed straight for the medical booth. She was suppose to be joining another doctor and a nurse, but she arrived to find she was the only doctor. But she went right to work evaluating people that required medical attention. I, on the other hand, was trained on the intake process. As a bus load of people started arriving, we had to follow a FEMA mandated procedure for collecting information from each and every evacuee. The center was set up to sleep about 250 people and it was already half full.

After filling out all the necessary paperwork, each new resident was escorted around the basketball court to tables that were handing out towels, toiletries, new underwear, and clean socks. As they were shown to their bed, the escort went down the list of other services available to them during their stay - internet was available (complete with signs displaying websites where they could search for loved ones); cell phones were available; the cafeteria (another room converted) was serving (donated) meals, snacks, and beverages; bathrooms had showers, the upstairs track was where the medical staff was stationed, along with Red Cross and local food stamp assistance. Two of the three basketball courts were converted to the sleeping quarters. Rows and rows of air mattresses and cots were lined up and each one made with clean sheets and blankets. For entertainment, there were televisions, games, books, and toys for the kids.

During some down time, I joined another volunteer in a racquetball court-turned-storage room to sort the boxes and boxes of donations the center received a couple hours earlier. The donations were worth thousands of dollars - toiletries of all kinds, clothes, baby items, bedding and towels, food, medicine, toys, etc.

Over the next 12 hours, we checked in 110 more people, who for the most part, have no idea where they will go when they leave the sports center.

So how, you ask, does this post relate to superheros? After agonizing over which superhero I would write about for this entry, after my day on Tuesday, I realized that I had met hundreds of superheros in those 12 hours at the shelter. Each and every volunteer - Superhero. Whether it's money, items, or time, anyone that is helping this effort is a Superhero. As a volunteer, there isn't much direction when it comes to someone who is "in charge". But this group (and from what I read, all groups) of volunteers find a way to come together and do what needs to be done. I was asked lots of questions that I didn't know how to answer. But instead of passing them off to someone else, I tried to find the answer for them - whether it was helping someone set up an email account so they could contact a family member or helping someone air up a deflated mattress, I was the "volunteer" they asked and it was MY job to help. However, I didn't feel like a superhero - I felt humbled with each new resident that checked into the make-shift shelter.

The dictionary describes a superhero as a fictional character having extraordinary or superhuman powers. In my mind, this describes the people displaced by Hurricane Katrina who are anything BUT fictional. They are the ones that have overcome the odds and have left everything behind not knowing the outcome - not knowing if they have a home, a job, a LIFE to return to. They are the ones with extraordinary strength and will. They are the ones with superhuman powers. THEY are the Superheros.