Yesterday's gathering at the Navy Pier Grand Ballroom in Chicago was a little late getting started, but once it began, even the small children were quiet.

During the acknowledgment of the dignitaries, Diann Burns, a local TV news anchor, said it had just been announced that Chicago Fire Department Commissioner Cortez Trotter had been named chief emergency officer for the City of Chicago. Shortly thereafter, Trotter announced that Asst. Deputy Commissioner Ray Orozco Jr. would be the new fire commissioner, effective May 1.

But Trotter quickly put the announcement aside to get serious about why everyone had gathered: to recognize the 83 CFD firefighters, EMTs, paramedics and officers who made up three deployment teams that responded to the call for help after Hurricane Katrina. The teams were part of the Illinois Mutual Aid Box Alarm System's response and relief crews that were dispatched to the Gulf.

Trotter proudly spoke of how the CDF deployment teams took their firefighters' Oath of Office and "rewrote it and moved it to a whole new geographic area." He added, "You have all shown that you know that the true meaning of partnership with MABAS."

Illinois MABAS President Jay Reardon said that each MABAS division was honoring its Katrina deployment teams in its own way. Across North America, fire and emergency service departments also have honored or recognized the efforts of their trained personnel who voluntarily responded to the calls for help after Katrina.

Gulf Coast fire departments continue to struggle to rebuild and heal their personnel, families and communities. We still don't know the full extent of health and environmental risks due to the stagnant waters, the floating bodies and decaying food, or the released chemicals. There is one thing we know for sure, however: Across this country, when there's a call for help, help will come — from within the community, from our neighbors, or from across the nation and our borders.

At the conclusion of the awards ceremony, Burns, acting as mistress of ceremonies, said, "As much as you do on the streets of Chicago everyday, you could have stayed at home." But CFD didn't. MABAS didn't. Thousands of other fire departments and agencies across the country didn't stay home.

For sure, more responded to the calls for help than the numbers of looters we saw on TV that week in September.