Kindness Award should be a national event - President

The time has come to celebrate the Kindness Award, organised each year by the Peace Lab, on a national level, President George Abela said this morning.

“Just as we celebrate the Worker of the Year and the Elderly Person of the Year on a national scale, we should start celebrating the kindness of people… This will give the award the prestige it deserves,” Dr Abela said.

He was speaking during the award ceremony of the Peace Lab’s Pope John XXIII Prize for Kindness, 50 years after the death of the “Good Pope”.

The award is given to schoolchildren aged between seven and 15 in remembrance of Pope John XXIII, affectionately remembered for his kindness.

This year the award went to 15-year-old student Alex Cassar from the Kirkop Boys’ Secondary School.

For the past four years Alex has helped and supported his friend and classmate Sandro Zammit, who uses a wheelchair.

“I help him because I want to and not out of obligation. I’d do the same for anyone. I think others should also help because it gives people like Sandro great courage,” Alex told journalists soon after receiving the prize.

His friend, Sandro, said that what Alex did for him meant a lot and he was “very happy”,

In May, the boys’ school organised a three-kilometre marathon called Festa Komunità and Alex ran with Sandro all the way with the other students.

Whenever Sandro is absent from class, to receive treatment, Alex takes care of his notes and schoolwork. And, through it all, he shies away from praise.

Fr Dionysius Mintoff, who runs the Peace Lab, spoke about the importance of teaching schoolchildren about people who were an exemplary of kindness, such as Pope John XXIII and Mahatma Gandhi.