Meet a man making a big difference.

Canaan McCaslin, 28, has been helping children in Central America and Mexico. And now, this hero is bringing his mission to the Tampa Bay area.

A graduate of Georgetown University, McCaslin returned to his local roots after several missions to Latin America.

His goodwill began in Belize.

"Our mission there was to build a home for a homeless mom, a single mom in Belize City, and it wasn’t a great big home," McCaslin said. "It was four walls, a floor and maybe split into three rooms.”

That first trip had a major impact on McCaslin.

“I also grew up in Florida in a single-parent home and knew how hard it was to see my mom make ends meet," he said. "I thought I knew what poverty was and being poor was until I went to Belize.”

Subsequent trips took him to Mexico with about 30 other volunteers to teach English to children. This was in a dangerous part of that country where the drug cartels have ravaged small villages.

And on a trip to the Dominican Republic, McCaslin met and worked with that nation's street children - homeless kids, primarily boys, living in an extremely dangerous world.

McCaslin's dedication and concern for kids brought him home to Lutheran Services Head Start program in St. Petersburg, serving 1,600 low-income pre-K kids.

Along with two meals and a snack daily, the children are getting a quality education, including reading skills, to best prepare them for school and a future.

And while K-12 is important, “inspiring these kids at the youngest age, when they’re developing their brains, and especially the most vulnerable when they’re getting a lot of challenges at home, is just as important," McCaslin said.