Like much of the world, Mikey Hernandez watched televised images as the Indian Ocean tsunami destroyed thousands of lives in late 2004.

Then when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in August 2005, the nine-year-old Catholic school student made a decision.

“Mikey has a big heart,” said his mother, Terri Hernandez. “He felt sad and because he couldn’t go (to the Gulf Coast to help out), he wanted to help children locally.”

A third grader at Presentation School in Sacramento, Hernandez decided he wanted to reach out to assist children at Mustard Seed School, a program of Loaves & Fishes, a social service organization serving the homeless in Sacramento.

“I felt really bad that those kids didn’t have things like me, and I wanted to help make their lives a lot better,” Mikey Hernandez said.

In 2005 he spent hours making hand-crafted jewelry and ornaments and sold them at Presentation School’s craft fair, raising $500 for Mustard Seed School.

Then in 2006, he designed five Christmas cards which he sold, raising another $600 for Mustard Seed students. One popular design features the Three Wise Men.

Kate Foucek, Mikey’s third grade teacher at Presentation School, said her young student is leading by example in living his faith.

“Mikey is pretty humble about it,” Foucek said. “He is using what he has learned at home and at Catholic school to give back to others less fortunate.”

Sue Supple, co-director of Mustard Seed School, greeted the enterprising third grade student one blustery day in January when he arrived with a New Year’s gift for the children.

“Mikey is just a wonderful young man with a real compassion about him,” Supple said. “He felt a real need to help people and is just very generous.”

Mikey is already at work making plans to create Easter cards and raise more funds to benefit people in need and has developed his own Web site at www.mikeysmission.com.

The site is currently under construction but expected to be completed soon.

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