Valley people show kindness near and far

As the stories of the tragedy in Haiti continue to unfold, three Valley men are there helping out.

On their own dime.

Dr. Jordan Greer, an emergency room physician who works daily at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center helping us through misery, is now helping Haitians in misery a thousand-fold. His sons, Jordan II and Hunter Greer, are there with him.

News accounts say people in Haiti are dying of broken bones. Open wounds that would be treated by our mothers here are killing children.

Going into that maelstrom of ungodly human distress couldn’t be more daunting. Yet, Greer and his sons took themselves there with no thought of themselves. Their motivation is nothing more than to help the helpless.

They’ve flown from the cold of Alaska and their homes to the heat and stench of bodies decaying in the streets to save those they can.

We label too many as heroes these days. Sports stars are heroes. Politicians are heroes. Teachers are heroes. To some, even gang-bangers are heroes.

Greer and his sons are heroes.

So are Alice Cruikshank and Holly Hinkle.

The difference is they didn’t look for a problem to help, it came to them and they responded.

Four people, including an 18-month-old child, were sleeping Thursday morning as a fire was burning the outside of their home — minutes away from a full-fledged inferno, fire officials said.

While the two were collecting pre-school children in the morning darkness, they spotted what looked to them like a burn barrel. Odd at that time of day, they thought, so Cruikshank backed the bus down the road and they saw the fire.

Hinkle stayed with the children as Cruikshank went to the door and roused the family as smoke was filling the house.

The child was handed off to Cruikshank and she handed the child to Hinkle and went back to help the others, wielding a fire extinguisher. Not a lot of help as embers streamed to the sky. She did what she could.

What she did first, though, was the key. Buildings can be replaced.

Fire officials will tell you most people don’t burn to death in home fires. They essentially suffocate first.

There it is. Three men and two women most of us have never heard of, saving people in worlds apart.

We say thank you.