Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Jesus Chapel students held up signs honoring Maria Ruiz during a rally Wednesday at El Paso City Hall. Ruiz is one of 10 finalists for the title of CNN Hero of the Year for 2008. (Photos by Victor Calzada / El Paso Times )

EL PASO - Although El Pasoan Maria Ruiz doesn't consider herself a hero, she was given a hero's reception Wednesday during a rally at City Hall.

CNN had a hometown rally Wednesday morning for Ruiz, who is one of 10 finalists for the title of CNN Hero of the

About 200 students and staff from Jesus Chapel School, where Ruiz volunteers and her 12-year-old son attends school, along with several of Ruiz's friends and relatives, cheered for Ruiz during the rally. The rally will be featured during "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute," which will be broadcast at 7 p.m. MST Thanksgiving Day. The host for the show will be Anderson Cooper, and it will be taped Saturday at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.

At the rally, Mayor John Cook proclaimed Wednesday as Maria Ruiz CNN Hero Day, and presented her with the proclamation. Ruiz was also given a certificate of special congressional recognition by U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas.

"I feel honored and privileged," Ruiz said after the rally. "I don't consider myself a hero."

Ruiz is among more than 4,000 people who were nominated for the recognition. She was nominated by Sandy Horine of Cincinnati who met Ruiz during a trip to Juárez with her church.

In 1996, Ruiz began providing food to about 1,200 children a day at a Juárez school.

After three years, the businesses she depended on for donations shut down, but with the help of her husband, Jesus, she set up the ministry JEM, or Jesus Es Mana, and began distributing food,

The Ruiz family, joined by their two children, are now building an orphanage for 100 children, a kitchen big enough to feed 500 people and a trade school.

As a finalist for the CNN award, she will receive $25,000, which will be used to pour concrete for the orphanage, said Jesus Ruiz.

Although Maria Ruiz has been humbled by the award and the increased attention surrounding her good deeds, she hopes her story will inspire other El Pasoans.

"This has brought about a lot of awareness," Ruiz said. "We all can make a difference."

Ruiz said she was surprised by the nomination and appreciates the accolades, but her main satisfaction comes from seeing the faces of those she has helped.

"Spiritually, I'm blessed," Ruiz said. "Never did I think this would be this big. I know it's God's will."

Ruiz's daughter, Elizabeth Ruiz, 19, said she's proud of her mother's work, and is attending the University of Texas at El Paso as a business administration major in hopes of one day helping her parents run their ministry's orphanage.

"It's awesome to see her work being acknowledged," Elizabeth Ruiz said.

And when the winner is announced on Thanksgiving Day, the Ruiz family will still be working toward their cause. Jesus Ruiz said the family would spend the day in Juárez preparing and serving dinner to the needy.

"We'll be cooking turkeys, even though it's not a holiday there. We do it every year," Jesus Ruiz said. "This year we'll have a few extra turkeys."