Tuesday, September 21, 2010

A good role model

Many celebrities make the news for all the wrong reasons. Alcohol, drugs, sex, you name it. Entertainment, sports and political figures get their names in print and over the air for their bad acts.

And unfortunately, our kids are watching. These "heroes" get attention and youngsters may think it's OK to act that way.

So it's refreshing to read about a NFL star who is in the news for doing good off of the football field. His name is Hines Ward of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He has had an impeccable career. He has two Super Bowl rings, a Super Bowl MVP award and leads the Steelers in most all-time receiving categories. He should be a strong candidate to enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame five years after he retires.

He is a football hero on the field, but it's what he is doing off the field that gets my admiration. Ward has been named to President Barack Obama's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. The panel works to advise the president on ways to improve the lives of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Ward was born in Korea, the child of a black American father and an Asian mother, and has seen the discrimination that results when youngsters are biracial. To that end, he started the Hines Ward Hands Foundation to help such children. He used $1 million of his own money to launch the foundation.

Each off season he returns to Korea to advise biracial children and brings kids to the U.S. to get a taste of life in America.

Hines Ward is is fine example of the good celebrities can do. Unfortunately, many don't. If your kids are looking for a true sports hero, they need not look any further than Hines Ward.

Source: Pittsburgh Post Gazette

2 comments:

  1. I LOVE Ward.. His best friend Troy Polamalu (my favorite football player evr) has been doing some pretty awesome stuff too..

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  2. I grew up in Pittsburgh, and love the entire Steelers organization. Class through and through, Big Ben notwithstanding.

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