For those of us who live in campus housing, it's been a week now since the end of the big "blackout of '08'. As the trucks from DP&L;left the Darkside last Friday they received rounds of applause from students standing on their porches, and one might have thought World War II was over as the workers waved back in parade-like fashion. Sure, for a few moments they felt like heroes to some of us.

But let's think and recap who the real heroes to us were during the entire course of the blackout - and then some more in the days that followed.

These heroes were the dining services employees.

In the "letters to the editor" section this issue you can read a letter from just one of the many heroes that served our campus last week in one of its most desperate times of need in recent history. Ms. Focht, who works as a cashier at KU, writes that all the dining services employees "gave the very best service with a smile to UD's students over the period of the blackout."

The fact that we got any free meals in the first place was enough of a treat to the students that lacked power. But when one comprehends that dining services served 800-some extra people at lunch and 1,000-some extra

people at dinner, realize that it took a great deal of added effort and dedication from the people who worked there to pull it off - while doing it quite successfully.

Remember that although it may have been a difficult time for students without power that week, a good number of dining service employees are from around the area, too, and were also affected by the windstorms that took place on Sept. 14. Their extra efforts should be commended by any student that took advantage of the free meals.

A majority of the staff members here at Flyer News were among the UD students without electricity, and spent many hours that week in our office planning our big "blackout" issue while fulfilling our obligations as students. Having the availability of three, free hot meals a day to us helped us out tremendously in our time of need, and we'd like to express our gratitude to all the dining services employees who were able to make that possible.