RS Vacations – Big Bear Lake, CA

This past week I watched the movie ‘The Avengers’ with my family. It was a great movie and had all the action you could want in a superhero movie. As my husband and I were discussing it afterward, we talked about how we had the most respect for the characters ‘Black Widow’ and ‘Hawkeye’, because they were the only two of the heroes that had no superpowers. They are merely highly trained and skilled humans fighting against the forces of evil. They serve humanity because they are courageous and because it is the right thing to do. Having recently commemorated the anniversary of the 9/11 tragedies, I also began to think about what really makes a hero – in real life.

I still remember getting the phone call from my mother-in-law that September 11th morning. My husband and I were both off that day and were enjoying a rare ‘sleeping in’. The phone rang, and when I answered, she was clearly upset and said “We’re being attacked, turn on the TV”. So we did, and like millions of others, spent the entire day watching, horrified and saddened by the terrible images we saw. The thing that struck me the most that day was not that this had happened (evil is alive and well in this world), but watching hundreds of first responders – firefighters, police and paramedics – rush INTO the destruction while everyone else was running out. They were not running in to save their family members or loved ones. They risked, and in too many cases sacrificed, their own lives to save complete strangers. That is my definition of hero.

The brave men and women from New York and Washington are only a handful of the hundreds of thousands of paid and volunteer first responders that serve us every day in this country. Homes are saved from wildfires, families pulled from wrecked vehicles, dying people saved, violent criminals are hunted and captured, making our cities and towns just a little bit safer; the list goes on. I for one, am thankful for everything they do, every day, to make my life safer. And by the way, just because these people are ‘everyday’ heroes, doesn’t make them any less ‘SUPER’!

We, here at RS Vacations would like to say “Thank You” to our heroes – not only our local Big Bear heroes, but all First Responders around the country and around the world.