Heroes everywhere

BENCHWARMER
Ramon Dacawi

Last Monday provided us the greatest headline in years. Not the other Monday, after Manny Pacquiao demolished Puerto Rican Rafael Cotto to establish himself the greatest among the current bunch of prizefighters.

It’s about teacher Efren Penaflorida being proclaimed the CNN Hero of the Year. For years, Efren and other volunteers have been quietly pushing a cart loaded with books, chalk, eraser and blackboard to deliver education to children of the poor from where he came and still is from.

U.S. Ambassador Kristie Kenney, who admitted being heart-broken over leaving the Philippines where she served so well, must have cried and punched the air in jubilation over Efren’s victory. After all, she was there to rally for on-line votes for the 28-year old pushcart educator.

My eyes blurred reading the headline, aptly written without the quotation marks, in the Philippine Daily Inquirer: RP pushcart educator CNN hero of the year.

Heroism, as Penaflorida taught us all, means innovating within one’s givens just to be of help. Mustering his creativity and the power of one, he fleshed out Mother Theresa’s advice about feeding one if one can’t feed a hundred or 10. If you can’t have a classroom, then turn a pushcart into a mobile one. In doing so, he keeps alive the message of “Pay It Forward”, Catherine Ryan Hyde’s novel. It’s about a boy’s formula of asking people he helped to pay forward, by helping others.

Penaflorida finished school because of support from Club 8586, a volunteer group in Cavite City, and from World Vision, a group that matches sponsors of needy children. His pushcart classroom formula is now a movement. So is “Pay It Forward”.

“Our planet is filled with heroes, young and old, rich and poor, man, woman of different colors, shapes and sizes,” Francis noted in his acceptance speech.

Among them and with him were his nine fellow finalists and fellow ordinary people with extraordinary deeds. They were introduced to the whole world last Thursday -Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. - on CNN’s television premier of the awards event.

Among the world’s heroes was Brenden Foster, an 11-year old boy from Bothell, Washington. Early this month last year, he was watching TV while he was in pain and dying of leukemia. Seeing the homeless trying to cope with the coming winter cold, he made a last wish to feed them. His wish reverberated across the United States where groups and individuals served thousands of meals. He saw their spontaneous response on TV before he passed on – in triumph.

As Penaflorida noted, this troubled world is not wanting of heroes. Many are unknown outside the communities they serve, as he and his fellow winners from thousands of nominees would have been if CNN didn’t launch the search for heroes.

Indeed, this planet is full of heroes that we need not look far for them. It’s been my luck to have met or known some of them over the years, giving me the joy of writing about their culture of caring that is now Baguio’s centennial theme.

They’re bankers, pony boys, toddlers like Brenden, nurses, businessmen and women, students and pupils, teachers, expatriates, nurses, lawyers, doctors and such. Some were seriously ill patients supporting other patients. Others were or are inmates of the city jail reaching out from their prison bars.

It’s been an honor communicating with architect Freddie de Guzman, a Baguio boy living in Canada and a stranger to donor fatigue. It’s been rewarding listening to folk musicians the likes of Conrad Marzan, Bubut Olarte, March Fianza and the rest of the pioneers in the concerts-for-a-cause they had mounted over the years.

Those years of their living out the humanitarian message of their songs drew recognition the other Friday evening from the Baguio-Benguet Bankers Club..At their annual night, the BBBC headed by Albert Lopez paid tribute to the pioneer Baguio folksingers. The bankers likewise honored the veteran rescue and motorist assistance group Baguio-Benguet Public Information Civic Action Group (BB-PICAG), and former city councilor Dionsio Claridad Sr. who, in 1972, founded the bankers association.

Together with a plaque, the bankers handed an amount to support the folksingers in their humanitarian cause. The sum, together with a P1,000 from a banker, will help pay for the insurance premium for 16-year old Mika. She’s the daughter of Mike Santos, the ageless folksinger with a heart who passed on last September.

The citation for the singing heroes, signed by Lopez and BBBC Centennial Committee Chair Emil Ruff, read: “Heeding the call from various individuals who were in idre straits due to terminal illnesses, emergency medical procedure requirements, calamities and accidents, they organized concerts to raise funds that helped alleviate their plight.

Through their vocal and musical talents as well as their support from the media, they have made it possible for the needy and the generous to meet. They have touched the lives of many and they continue on. They truly are our unsung heroes.”

There’s also this youth group in the United States that spurred into action after watching the recent typhoon devastation here. Two of them attended mass three times on a Sunday. At the end of each mass, they stood by the church door with a donation box. Their inspiring story will be shared at the proper time. (e-mail: mondaxbench@yahoo.com for comments).