Acts of kindness

I have been writing sports stories for about three decades now starting when I was a correspondent of the UP Tambuli, the publication of the University of the Philippines College Cebu High School.

As the only freshman in the staff, my first assignment was to write about a classmate, Carl Bugarin, who became the volleyball MVP of our school intramurals on our first year, a feat he repeated every year since then until our class graduated in 1985.

Since that assignment, there were many other stories to write and eventually, I found myself as a sportswriter in the real world covering football and several other sports for The Freeman and later GMA-7 Cebu.

In the world of sports there are many stories about compassion and sharing that we have written the past many years.

There are sports patrons, who go out of their way to spend time and money to help events that they love. There are also those who offer their time to coach or help train the less privileged.

I’ve met athletes, who share to the less privileged and have written many touching stories of kindness from the world of sports.

One story that stands out was written I think back in 1995 during the Milo Little Olympics.

This was the story of a football player from Cebu International School, Rudy Moorhouse, who was named athlete of the year after leading his team to the title.

Rudy was then 12 years old, but he had such a huge heart. When he was told that he would be getting some money, I think P5,000, as incentive for being picked the best football athlete, without much hesitation, he said that would donate it to their championship game opponents, who had no shoes to wear.

That act of kindness from Rudy touched many in the Cebu sports world. In fact, the Sportswriters Association of Cebu gave him the Orlando C. Sanchez Memorial Award.

If we only have many more people like Rudy, this world would indeed be a better place to live in.

Fast forward to today. There are many who are going out of their way to help the victims of the floods wrought by Typhoon Sendong. Such acts of kindness are proof that there is hope for our nation.

Let us continue to share, whether it is Christmas or not, whether there is a calamity or not.

This could be what the Philippines needs to grow into the great nation that we hope to be. Kindness can be following traffic rules, being courteous on the road and on queues, complying with the proper requirements, not using the padrino system to get thing done, and many more acts that we can do to make this country a better place to live in.

* * *

MILESTONES: Happy birthday greetings to my fellow member of the board of directors of the Philippine Society for Industrial Security-7, Nestor Lumapas of Standout Security Agency.

More power to you!