Chennai :
They have no cutouts in cinema theatres. They have no big fan following. They led a simple life just like anybody else until the rain gods lashed their fury on Chennai in December.
They rose to the occasion. They saved lives and brought smiles to many others. “We had to make a choice. Whether to sit at home or get out there and save people,” they said. They then became real heroes.
On Monday, 14 people, who volunteered in flood relief work and did a heroic job, were honoured with awards at the Adding Smiles Ambassador Awards 2016 organised by Adding Smiles Foundation.
“We were doing our duty to help someone who is in need,” said Blue Cross general manager Dawn Williams, one of the awardees, in a video on the awardees.
All the 14 volunteers, including Peter Van Geit, Chennai Trekking Club founder and senior citizens of Anandam Homes, were presented with ‘Real Hero Awards’.
Awards were also given to celebrities, who were active during flood relief. The team ‘Mana Madras Kosam’ with Telugu film actors including Navdeep, Kajal Agarwal and Samantha , Sathyam Cinemas and Tamil actor Parthepan were presented awards.
“I am doing whatever little I can do. I have changed myself. As you grow older, you get fearless and want to do things before you go away,” the award winning composer said.
Activist and founder of NGO Prajwala Sunitha Krishnan, team from National Award winning Tamil film Kaaka Muttai, former RBI governor C Rangarajan, national paralympic swimming champion Madhavi Latha, founder and dean of Great Lakes Institute of Management Prof Bala V Balachandran, acid attack survivor Soniya Choudhary were some of the awardees in the ‘ambassador awards’ category.
The highlight of the evening was music composer AR Rahman, who was one of the awardees in ‘Adding Smiles Ambassador Awards’ category. The category included people, who have come the hard way to live a dream and spread smiles in the life of others by way of help.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Chennai / by V. Tejonmayan, TNN / January 19th, 2016