Former firefighter Chuck Robinson says his first instinct after hearing about the Sept. 11 attacks was to find a way to get to New York City to help. "I would've been there in a heartbeat," says Robinson, 47, who lives in Anaheim, Calif. Two days later, with national transportation at a standstill, he found a way to defy geography. When the avid angler heard a radio report that a Hard Rock Cafe in Manhattan feeding rescuers was running out of food, "I thought, 'I have two freezers full of fish. So does my buddy Earl. We know others too.' "
After calling pals, Robinson, now a sales rep for a marketing firm, posted an SOS for frozen-fish donations on a Web site for fishermen. By the weekend, local bait and tackle shops were crammed with coolers containing 2,500 lbs. of frozen tuna, mahi-mahi and shark. Another fisherman offered vans from his trucking company to collect the haul, and employees from a local Federal Express office collected money to ship it all to New York, where another angler paid a cab to pick up the fish.

The food crisis at the Hard Rock Cafe was over by then, so the 10-crate shipment was redirected to other eateries struggling to sustain rescue teams. "It makes you realize," says Hard Rock general manager Mark Levine, "that no matter what happens, Americans will come together and find a way to go on."

Deluged with another 1,500 lbs., Robinson sent it to Bouley Bakery, a trendy Gotham restaurant serving 30,000 rescuers and displaced people daily. And with $3,000 in cash donations, he founded the nonprofit Fish for America, which will send seafood to homeless shelters nationwide. Robinson, who lives with wife Blake, 61, says his mission has a healthy side effect: "I've been too busy to be preoccupied with anger."

More From This Article

For more on Fish for America, go to www.people.com or AOL (Keyword: People)