In Search Of Heroes Members Program

Ruben Gonzalez: I think people like teachers, firefighters and policeman and the guys that are defending our liberty out in the military. Those people are making such a low amount of money for what they do. A lot of times they are putting their life on the line and they are making a huge difference in peoples lives. They are doing what other people are not willing to do so they are heroes for sure.

I also think people are wired differently, just by personality types. Some people are wired where they do need the recognition and I don’t think there is anything wrong with that as long as they are getting the job done. Other people feel more comfortable in being behind the lines, being support personal. Its funny, some things I want to be in the lime light and some things I prefer to be in the background so I think it shifts. I think where the persons heart is, is the key factor.

Something happened to me at the Salt Lake City Olympics that made it possible for me to compete. We were training and this was three days before the men’s race. At the Salt Lake City Olympics we are training on the track. We get seven trainings on the week before and I had a terrible crash on one of those rounds. I just wasn’t paying attention believe it or not and had an awful crash and my sled was pretty messed up. I am not much of a sled mechanic and I walk back into the start house with my sled and my face was just pale, not so much from my crash but from my sled. I thought “My gosh I have a race in three days and I don’t even have a sled.

This guy walks up to me, his name is Jonathan Edwards, he had completed in the Luge back in 1994 and I didn’t even know him. He walks up to me and he says “Hey Ruben just give me a file and in thirty minutes I will have fixed that sled for you.” He didn’t have to do that. He had nothing to gain other than the satisfaction that he was helping another human being. He was my guardian Angel.

He just came out of nowhere and he helped me out. It made me realize “Wow, what if we all strive to be like that?” To be on the lookout and have a certain level of awareness around us and ask ourselves “Where can I lend a helping hand? A simple thing for us might be life changing for someone else.

The great use of life is to spend it for something that outlasts it.
- William James

Alex Mandossian: I think most heroes don’t. I think there is an anonymous mother somewhere who is not getting the recognition that she deserves.

I think there is a politician who is honest and who has always been on the straight and narrow who has not received recognition. I think there is a governor out there or a mayor who hasn’t been recognized.
There is a prime minister who has saved lives in his country or her country who hasn’t gotten recognition. The reason we don’t know who they are is because they have not received recognition. They are leaders from behind. They are heroes from behind. They are anonymous and that’s how we started this interview.