The Caped Crusader

A four-year-old boy discovers that compassion for the less fortunate can produce superhuman results

- Claire Nowak

AUSTIN PERINE is not your typical superhero. Oh, sure, he looks the part, with his signature cape flapping against his blue shirt. He has an arch nemesis, as all good heroes must. He even uses a catchy name for his heroic alter ego: President Austin.

But two things set this caped crusader apart: His adversary is not confined to the pages of a comic book—President Austin’s foes, hunger and homelessness, are very real. Also, he’s only four years old.

Our hero’s origin story started this past February in the Perine family living room in Birmingham, Alabama. Austin and his father, TJ Perine, were watching a program on Animal Planet about a mother panda leaving her cubs. “I told him that the cubs would be homeless for a while,” TJ says. “Austin didn’t know what homelessness meant, but he was sad and wanted to know more.”