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“In the arena of human life the honors and rewards fall to those who show their good qualities in action.” —Aristotle
Going home to receive an award seemed such a preposterous idea to my brother when first I broached the subject to him of Bart and myself doing it. “I wouldn’t go home just to accept an award,” he said briefly, albeit dismissively. Though it didn’t surprise me that he felt that way, I also knew I couldn’t let his remark and thought go unchallenged.
I told him that while awards might seem to him and the rest like him an exercise in vanity and false pride, that impression is actually farthest from the truth. For to those award-giving organizations or entities, the task of bequeathing this recognition comes with a serious responsibility to give it to the most deserving. There are standards and measures of success they must strictly go by. And though it couldn’t be avoided that some awardees are ten or more times much more accomplished and successful than the others, all recipients have nevertheless passed the grade.
The tradition of honoring or recognizing excellence and achievements has been in place since time immemorial. Schools bestow their outstanding students, medals, honors and awards in recognition of their academic excellence. Every industry feels an obligation to honor members who either excelled in their crafts or fields of expertise or made great contributions toward promoting and uplifting their professions. Hollywood honors its finest with an annual award through The Oscars. Excellence in newspaper journalism, literary achievements and musical composition is awarded yearly with a Pulitzer Prize to the deserving. The world renowned and most prestigious award, the Nobel Prize, confers honor, fame and money to the recipients, whose extraordinary work either changed the world or has the potential to change and make it a better place.
Humanitarian service and extraordinary acts of valor, heroism and philanthropy- all these get lauded by both public and private organizations, often in a ceremonial feat. I have attended a number of mainstream annual fundraising events, notably hospitals, awarding their biggest donors. I have never seen any award recipient grudgingly accept his or her award. On the contrary, they all beamed with obvious pride and joy on stage – proof that despite their money and influence, they still relish recognition.
We’ve hosted the Annual National Gintong Pamana Awards Gala Night for 18 years and this year on August 24 it will be on its 19th year. It wouldn’t have run this long if we and these highly accomplished people who have gladly accepted the honor didn’t believe in its value and purpose. It’s important for a community to see excellence and success thriving in its midst. It challenges them to believe that nothing is impossible for those who dare to brave and conquer their circumstances. It validates the achiever’s success and purpose and motivates him or her to strive even higher.
Opportunity to open new doors
Natatanging Anak Kabanatuan (Distinguished Child of Cabanatuan) is only a title that may not even mean anything to those outside of the circle that give it away or receive it. But there’s more to this award-giving tradition than meets the eye. Personally, I see it as an opportunity to reach out to the thousands of our city’s sons and daughters who now live outside of its borders, somewhere beyond the seas – in U.S. A. and Canada, in Australia, the European countries and the Middle East – anywhere their ambitions and dreams had taken them.
Perhaps I can rekindle their nationalistic fervor and start a positive trend. There is so much we can do individually, but so much more we can accomplish if we form ourselves into a larger group of committed and dedicated volunteers and workers and start putting our heads and resources together to pull off a bigger project.
We can be instrumental in opening new doors of opportunities for people to work together for a common good. Our nurses and doctors, IT specialists, accountants, teachers, business owners and others who are doing well here in the U.S. or in other foreign lands could find it easier to get involved in a humanitarian cause when they see a link to click in the Internet or read about it in a community paper.
You would probably ask why we need an award to serve and do good things to our countrymen. The answer, of course is, no, we don’t. We can always serve our community without these trappings. But being a part of that league of awardees and being able to access a roster of these successful people will make it easier to push a project off to a powerful start, gather the needed steam and run it to the finish in no time. It is efficient and it is more likely to be successful.
Profile of courage in a public servant
A couple of years ago when Bart and I attended a Gawad Kalinga meeting over at the Yorros in Lake Forest, we met a woman from Nueva Ecija who dreamed of seeing her poorest constituents in Cabiao live in some of those colorful houses she saw from a calendar. Unlike others who’d stop with their wistful thinking, she inquired and didn’t stop till she found the organization and the people behind the project and worked her part to make her dream a reality. To cut the story short, the town of Cabiao now hosts Chicago’s GK Village, with colorful GK homes perched proudly on the piece of land that was either idle or was once a site of makeshift houses of Cabiao’s poorest families.
Mayor Gloria “Baby” Crespo –Congo was that woman who dared to dream for her constituents and worked hard to make that dream come true. She’s a genuine profile in courage, a leader with a big heart for the poor. It’s important for us to know that there are public officials like her who will constantly reassure us that all is not lost to corruption and dirty politics in our homeland. There’s hope for our city, town and province and we can be part of that hope by turning it into a reality.YT