Real heroes don’t wear capes

Hope can be hard to find.

We are bombarded with images of starving children in Gaza. Ukraine is on fire. Campers vanish in Texas floods. And attacks on churches in Africa leave the ground littered with bodies.

No matter your political views, it can seem like America is a nation divided and at war with itself. We are angry and afraid, and the future seems uncertain.

Yet, goodness is everywhere. My wife and I visited Camp Tharros near Lewes last week. It's a camp approved for up to 28 homeless people along Route 1. Most of the campers go to Code Purple shelters during the winter at either St. Jude the Apostle Catholic Church or the Lutheran Church of Our Savior.

Yet, when the weather warms, the shelter doors close. Now, the camp will serve as a bridge between March 15 and Dec. 1, when Code Purple reopens again.

It's a remarkable place. Not because the accommodations are beautiful or the problems have all been solved.

It's remarkable because they give hope at Tharros, which means courage in Greek.

People on the margins of society, many with serious health issues, now don't have to worry about where they will sleep or whether they can find a bathroom. They have stability and safety, and with them comes a host of other things like regular caseworkers, visits from healthcare workers and meals brought some days by local churches.

The other reason it is remarkable is because the community has rallied around the homeless in a joyful and loving way. Legal work to get the camp approved was donated pro bono. Surveying the site was done pro bono.

A company services the port-a-potties for free. A local plumber will be putting in a water line so there is running water. A local bicycle shop donates 10 hours of free labor every week because many of the campers ride bicycles.

A local laundromat washes bedding in the winter from the shelters for free. A trash collection company donated bins off site so the homeless have a place where their belongings can be locked safely away.

There are portable showers. Beebe Healthcare comes to provide healthcare every other week. A doctor from upstate Delaware brings her portable treatment van every month.

More than 200 volunteers work with the shelters and the camp. Under the blistering July sky, volunteers laid pallets, covered them with waterproof plastic and set up tents. They just built a wooden canopy to give campers a place to escape the sun. An anonymous donor just donated two picnic tables.

A bottled water drive at St. Jude hoped to have 100 cases of water donated for the homeless. They collected 428 cases of water.

Everywhere you look, businesses have donated their time and resources. Hundreds of volunteers help however they can.

No one gets paid. 

In a time when it seems kindness is in short supply, this place runs on equal measures of sweat and hope.

“Superman” is the movie blockbuster this year. It landed in theaters July 11.

But it turns out that real heroes don't wear capes. They carry a briefcase, swing a hammer or slave over a hot stove.

And they are everywhere.