Baby Boomer Traveling: Hero

How do you define what a hero is?
A) can leap tall buildings in a single bound
B) saves a person from a burning ________ (fill in the blank)
C) changing the world for the better
D) all of the above

I would've chosen one of these answers if you had asked me a little over a year ago. I hear the word Hero and I think Superman, Spiderman, the Avengers maybe even Batman. Then again I think of police, fire fighters, military folks. Like the marines on Iwo Jima or the pilots who delivered the bombs that dropped over Japan in WWII. As for changing the world, I think of Gandhi, Ben Gurion or Churchill.
All of these people have been or are considered heroes by me and probably by most people. But most people don't consider the guy next door. The average man who quietly works at something till he accomplishes what it was he set out to do. The husband and dad who follows his heart to accomplish one small feat. He's probably quiet, self-effacing and more than likely doesn't have millions of dollars in his bank account.
On this weekend trip, I found my hero. No not Dan. He may be my personal hero but not in the same way. The Hero I found was someone I went to High School with, he was in my home room, was quiet back then, and almost shy. It took Facebook for us to find each other again. Thank goodness for social networks.
Rob was the manager of the Basketball team during his time at WCHS, he lives now in Port Lavaca on the Texas coast. And what makes him a hero to me, is he saw a need and he tried to fill that need. He works with special needs children in the school district. A hard enough job for anyone. And if you a have special needs child or have been around them then you know it is difficult, how it requires the patience of Job, and can be frustrating work.
But Rob didn't stop there. A parent came to him and told him about the Challenger League and said simply we need this in Port Lavaca. And Rob saw that, yes it was needed in the small coastal town where he lives and works and so he began his journey to find out how, what it would cost and could it be done. Challenger is a part of Little League that allows children with disabilities to play baseball just like any other child. The age range for Challenger is 4 to 22 years of age. So children with disabilities can participate in the Great American Pastime just like anyone else.
Rob contacted the local Little League and worked with them so that their fields could be used for Challenger children, they also volunteered their equipment as well. This was just something that God gave to Rob, because it came together as if the puzzle pieces had been marked for him. This one next, that one over there after. Challenger league is alive, growing and now two years old in Port Lavaca with 26 kids this year that were signed up. There are Cubs and Pirates kids who play and have fun in spite of their disabilities. This is one place where they can believe that they are just like any other kid.
So now if you ask me what a hero is, I would say it's someone like Rob. Someone who sees a need and steps up with time, money and effort to help out when no one else would. Someone who does for others when there is nothing in it for themselves other than the satisfaction of knowing they've made their little corner of the world a better place to be. Someone who cares more for others than themselves. Thanks Rob for inspiring me.

I would also give a personal thank you to Rob Suarez who took us out to dinner, showed me his secret birding area where he shoots his photographs and gave me a lesson in how to take pictures of birds especially in flight. He also pointed out the perfect place to take pictures of sunsets and showed us the local alligator. Thanks for your time and help with all these pictures.