A giving heart is showing for Haiti

Chicago and its suburbs are once again showing off a big heart to go along with big shoulders.

Of course, we're talking about the response to the devastation caused by the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti. It's been nothing short of impressive, inspiring and uplifting.

Local businesses, organizations and residents have opened hearts and wallets to provide comfort and aid to a small island nation that is no stranger to political strife, human suffering and natural disasters in its history.

Crushing poverty is the norm on a good day in Haiti. Yet, its people continue trying to get off the mat and move forward.

The pictures and video have told a mournful story that must move even the most cynical among us: an estimated 150,000 dead, hundreds of thousands more without the basic necessities of life and their capital city of Port-au-Prince reduced to rubble.

The call has gone out for food, water, clothing and equipment, and the Chicago area, the United States and world are responding to help.

This isn't first time people have stepped up to help others beset by Mother Nature's fury, within our own country or half a world away. The destruction and death caused in the New Orleans area by Hurricane Katrina and the 2004 Asian tsunami were met with a similar outpouring.

This latest need is a little different because it comes at a time when we have some serious problems here at home.

We are suffering through the worst economic downturn in decades. Businesses have closed, unemployment has reached 10 percent in Illinois. Millions have lost their homes through foreclosure.

It would be easy to say, "I'm sorry, I can't help this time."

Yet we find the time and the means and the will to help because that is what we do.

It's what drives more than 1,000 volunteers like Jack Lira of Kenosha and Nicole Claude of Addison to help man a call center at Hewitt Associates in Lincolnshire to collect nearly $3 million in contributions for the American Red Cross Haitian relief effort.

It's what drives groups like the McCormick Foundation and companies like CDW, Walgreen, McDonald's and United Airlines to match employee contributions, or provide food and water or create special flights to airlift supplies.

It's what drives doctors and nurses, including a team from Rush University Medical Center, to go on mercy missions.

Most of us can't go to Haiti to help, but we can send money through e-mail or a cell phone text. We can write a check to the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 4002018, Des Moines, IA 50340-2018 (indicate a designation on the memo line).

Because someone in need is what drives us to dig deep and help like we always do.