Rudy Gay, Alonzo Mourning, Eric Spoelstra

In one hand a water bottle, in the other hand a basketball. But not today, today he had a plane ticket and a suitcase.

Former Miami Heat center Alonzo Mourning, guard Tim Hardaway, and Memphis Grizzlies player Rudy Gay, along with Miami Heat Coach Eric Spoelstra all went on a trip to Haiti to aid where a huge earthquake had hit in the year of 2009. The Heat legend Alonzo Mourning said the experience was "Overwhelming." Then he went back to Haiti on a Saturday morning to help improve the area even more.

Still, all of the three players and coach say that it is just a start to what they can do to help. One of Mourning's great quotes while he was there was, "You would not believe how much better the quality of everything is here now for these people, they still need more." But they were not the only ones that went too, a team of relief workers from Project Medishare, which is a non-profit organization went too.

In order to help the country of Haiti. the Heat organization gave them a check for $25,000, and 20 large, but temporary tent homes and other things that families need. Miami Coach Eric Spoelstra said about the terrible earthquake "When it happened back in January, it was such a tragedy, immediately everybody in the organization wanted to do something."

Some of the things that they sent over to Haiti were, boxes of water, diapers, sandals and other things that the Haitian people need. Also, some of the people that went on the trip have been there a lot already. Some of them went sixteen times before. Alonzo Mourning and Dwayne Wade started a charity that raised about $800,000 to help them. They raised that much money in only three days! These players are calling their group the "Athletes Relief Fund for Haiti."

There are many traits that these athletes and former athletes showed while helping Haiti recover from a devastating earthquake. Some of those traits are, selflessness in helping Haiti, dedication, for even when things got hard helping over there they kept going. They also sacrificed their time in order to help people who really need it. Also, they have to have bravery in order to go over there because there are probably many types of viruses and diseases over there and they still went.

All of those people who went showed many traits of a hero. I can show some of those traits by maybe collecting food and shipping it over there to help them. Or I can send some money, or even raise some money so they can buy some food, water or even some sort of housing. I can learn a lot by watching and following the actions of these players.