Etymology of Amateur: French, from Latin amator lover, from amare to love

1 : DEVOTEE, ADMIRER

2 : one who engages in a pursuit, study, science, or sport as a pastime rather than as a profession

In other words, the actions of these hams were genuinely motivated by LOVE of their hobby and LOVE of their community who they were more than willing to help. They  preformed this valuable service without any thought of  monetary rewards that 'professionals' do.

I can't think of a truer meaning of the word, and I am happy to be known as an AMATEUR radio operator.  .Bob WB5FBS

Dale, AA5DW, and his wife Chanda, AD5IQ provided communications for three days, as the only communications link between St. Tammany E.O.C. and the State EOC in Baton Rouge. They came into the disaster area with their motor home, and he and his wife took over the net control for 8 days helping to bring a sense of normality and order to the frequencies. Using the call for our club, NO5LA, Dale and Chanda took turns as Net Control and handled other issues that freed me up to focus on other important issues.

Larry - KA5NXT Came from Kender, La after the call for help went out.   His employer was kind enough to allow him the time off work to assist in the recovery effort.  For 8 days, Larry was took over Net control from AA5DW & AD5IQ when they had to return to their home and jobs. Using the NO5LA Larry went about making sense of all the information coming into the Red Cross communications center and passing the messages to the people that needed the information so the Red Cross could do their jobs effectively.

David - K5OLE Drove from San Antonio Texas to assist in providing communications for the Northshore Division of the American Red Cross.  Being that we had more shelters than operators, David to float between the 5 shelters in eastern St. Tammany parish providing the Red Cross with information such as numbers of people in shelters, number of meals needed and other information needed to insure the shelter population went without the basic needs.

Brock - KG4VUL Drove in from Tennessee to assist in any position. His ability to communicate on the level of the people with the OEP (Office of Emergency Management) and the Red Cross made him the perfect person to act as the liaison between the EOP, National Red Cross and the Net control. For 11 days Brock worked in a little cubby hold at the Parish E.O.C.

Dave - WB5HJV was the EOC schmoozer, fireman, peacekeeper, etc at the Parish E.O.C. before Brock.  It was his hard work that allowed a smooth transition for the Amateurs that came behind him that were assigned to the E.O.C.`

Edwin - KL7EMH Who arrived in his motor home and was sent to the Red Cross staging area by their request to assist with communications between the local Red Cross office and operations on H.F..  Once the Red Cross got their communications trucks fully operational, Ed was reassigned to provide communications for shelters in out lying areas that had lost all normal communications and the only way to pass traffic was through Amateur radio.

Clint - WA5TMJ In Chicago, who once compacted by Mike, KB5OZE took on the job of Health and Welfare even though he had no real experience at it.  Every night without fail, he was there when Mike called to pass traffic out the the disaster area. He, like all of the Amateurs that responded proved our motto that; When All Normal Means of Communications Fail!   Amateur radio gets through.  My sincere thanks to Clint and all the operators that responded to help in this disaster.

Kay Zero Disaster Response Team - K0DRT Came from Colorado to provide communications for any disaster response that needed their service.  Equipped with camper and portable UHF repeater, these ARES volunteers came ready to do whatever job that would be asked of them.  If a disaster ever strikes my area again, I hope these guys will be available. Their level of professionalism surprised many of my people

From left to right; Dean, Thomas, Mike, Jeff, Wes, Rob and Pat

Wes Wilson	K0HBZ	Paul Garvey	K0BLM
Dean Haskins	KA0PII	Pat Kelly	KC0MIR
Mike Allen	N0MIK	Tom Dawson	KC0NRZ

George Stone - AC7AI & Omer Fournier - AD7DY, Both George and Omer arrived at out service center from Washington State with one goal in mind, that was to help in any way required. The first task was to relieve 2 of out local Hams at the hospital were we had an H.F. station linking 4 hospitals together as the 800 mHz Hospital system went down within a few hours of the storm striking. Once released, they took on other assignments.