Hurricane Ike disaster relief

This week's Five Dollar Hero entry gives you a choice in your efforts to assist those hit hard by Hurricane Ike out in Texas and Louisiana. This wasn't a Hurricane Katrina, but it was certainly bad enough to leave thousands homeless -- most temporarily, and some permanently.

I've always admired the work of Habitat for Humanity, but I never realized they were a ecumenical Christian ministry. For me, I'm perfectly fine with that; I think there are too few religious folks who put their money and time where their mouth is, and I give Habitat huge props for doing so. So check out Habitat's site and if you like what you see, donate to their Ike relief efforts.

All that said, I also promised to keep religion out of things as best I could on here. So if an ecumenical Christian housing ministry isn't your cup of tea, then I strongly encourage you to revisit the Red Cross National Disaster Relief Fund and donate as much as you can.

Note that neither Habitat nor the Red Cross are actually accepting $5 donations on their sites; it's a minimum of $10. But this is a big-deal storm, with lots of people who are suffering. So we can all collectively skip another latte this week, right? Go for it! Be a TEN Dollar Hero!