Last week's column brought several of my personal heroes to your attention, actors and astronauts of note. Today I wish to highlight another hero of mine claiming an accomplishment of her own who has, to date, gone largely unsung. Yet all reading this column owe her a great debt of gratitude.

I hope those assuming thankless tasks do actually accumulate a special portion of heaven's grace. It's easy to underestimate just how many real resources go into "volunteer non-profit." In addition to the greenbacks and brickbats Paramount gets a veritable army of well-wishers driven like spawning salmon to propagate and cogitate and elucidate every single on-screen moment.

Star Trek would have dissolved into the dip of lost television history were it not for the active participation of the fans like my hero. Why do they do it? I can offer no better answer than that it must feel good to do so. (If she's got a better answer, I'd like to know it!)

When first I learned the new series was coming, the net helped me track down information about it. At the time I was expanding into YahooGroups so I hunted around for related sites. (That was back when it was Star Trek:Enterprise then Trek:Enterprise and now of course it's just Enterprise.)

Here I didn't even know anything about the series and she already had a website up! When subsequently she sought those willing to write columns for the new site I was hopelessly infected by the foresight of her optimism. Some ten episodes later it has proven true.

The show could have sucked you know. Early opinions predicted something exactly like that. But maybe because people - fans - like her believed, it blossomed. Just for a gratuitous TOS connection here: By any other name, a rose would smell as sweet and similarly should a star shine as bright. That has something to do with heart ... and faith. (Someday a good song could be written about that!)

These days, roundabouts every Wednesday once more she uploads my output to her site. She puts up with my ham-fisted antennae-twisted style of moderating. She might even put up with this broadside compliment to her skillful success.

This hero of mine is a friend to me only recently so I really know little except a name and that we fondly share a familiar fanaticism. My hero is Kara Leigh. I didn't have a good friend like her when Trek first appeared, but we're all glad to have one like her now.