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Tracie Dean: An American Hero

People magazine is known for it's coverage of celebrity and entertainment news, but it also has devoted a series of articles to regular Americans who act courageously called "Heroes Among Us."

Tracie Dean, who saved a young girl from horrific abuse and works with homeless children in Atlanta, is one of the magazine's most well-known heroes.

"Every time we do those stories, as you dive into the lives of these people like Tracie," People's managing editor Larry Hackett told The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith. "It's one thing to go in a store and drive the hundreds of miles back to find the bad guy and look at the surveillance tape. There's a whole other story in her life."

Back in Georgia, Dean is still struggling to put the past 10 months of her life in perspective when her story made national headlines.

Headed home after a long trip, Dean stopped at an Alabama convenience store where she met a little girl who seemed frightened by the man taking care of her. When Dean left the gas station, she just had a hunch about that little girl; something didn't seem right. Dean jotted down the man's license plate number. For days she struggled to confirm her suspicions that this was the case of a missing child. Finally, four days later, there was a break.

"When I realized through the course of that day that I was hitting another brick wall and I thought, OK, the buck stops here. I'm going to do this myself," Dean said.

Right after work, she drove some 300 miles back to the convenience store to look at surveillance tapes in hopes of rescuing the child.

"It was a God thing," she said. "It was in my heart just to keep driving."

Dean's instinct and perseverance helped turn up evidence that led to the arrest of Jack Wiley and Glenna Faye Cavender, who were charged with rape and child abuse of the little girl, who had looked so scared, and abuse of her 17-year-old brother.

"She seemed like an ordinary person who went to extraordinary lengths and did extraordinary things for this child, and I think that caught the nation's attention," Mobile Press Register reporter Connie Baggett said.

As people learned of Dean's good deed, they sent donations and she gave every penny of more than $12,000 to her true calling, a daycare center for homeless children in Atlanta called Our House.

"For her, it's all about the children," said Tyese Lawyer, executive director of Our House. "It's all about, 'Why don't we have this? Why can't we get this?' And if she sees a need or a gap here in the center she will very quickly give her own time or her own money to help meet that need."

As an Our House board member Dean said she hoped to raise more than $50,000 and to build a brand new center for the children she's been helping for more than four years.

"Our House right now is able to serve 44 children at a time," Lawyer said. "We turn away probably 20 to 30 children each month because we simply don't have the space."

Corey is one of the children staying at Our House. His family became homeless after a car accident.

Corey's mother Dawn Carter is also getting training courtesy of "Our House."

"My dream in a year is to be working in a daycare," Carter said.

And Dean is determined to make many more dreams come true for the little ones she knows need her help the most.

"When children are involved, they don't have a voice," Dean said. "You have to help them."

To learn how you can help Our House click here.

Read more about the Heroes series at People.com.

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