Clemente sending aid to tsunami victims in memory of father
Thirty-two years after the worst day of his life, Roberto Clemente Jr. won't be spending this New Year's Eve as he had planned. He will be honoring his father and namesake nonetheless. And wasn't that the whole point?
Clemente Jr.'s plan was to get on a plane Friday night and head to Nicaragua from San Juan. He would leave at 6:30 p.m., with 16,000 pounds of relief aid, just as his father had on Dec. 31, 1972. He would symbolically complete his father's mercy mission - one that ended with a plane in the Caribbean Sea, and Roberto Clemente dead.
Then the tsunami hit southeast Asia, and as each day brought horrific updates of the scope of the tragedy, Clemente Jr. knew his mission had to be rerouted.
"It's something that needs to be done," Clemente Jr. said Thursday from Puerto Rico, where he announced that his so-called "Flight for Humanity" would now head to Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand. "There is no doubt in my mind that my father would want it this way. If he were here today he would want to be helping all the people who have been victimized by such a tragedy."
In 1972, it was the ravages of an earthquake that killed some 8,000 Nicaraguans that moved the elder Clemente to action. Now a sub-oceanic quake has spawned a wall of water that has left devastation beyond comprehension. Clemente Jr., who is a broadcaster for ESPN, said that collection drives in New York, Pittsburgh and Puerto Rico would be relaunched, and said he would be on a cargo plane bound for Asia within 10 days or so, with more than eight tons of food, water and medical supplies.
"Every flight that goes out there is a flight for humanity," said Clemente, adding that the effort was being coordinated through the American Red Cross.
:clap:
Thirty-two years after the worst day of his life, Roberto Clemente Jr. won't be spending this New Year's Eve as he had planned. He will be honoring his father and namesake nonetheless. And wasn't that the whole point?
Clemente Jr.'s plan was to get on a plane Friday night and head to Nicaragua from San Juan. He would leave at 6:30 p.m., with 16,000 pounds of relief aid, just as his father had on Dec. 31, 1972. He would symbolically complete his father's mercy mission - one that ended with a plane in the Caribbean Sea, and Roberto Clemente dead.
Then the tsunami hit southeast Asia, and as each day brought horrific updates of the scope of the tragedy, Clemente Jr. knew his mission had to be rerouted.
"It's something that needs to be done," Clemente Jr. said Thursday from Puerto Rico, where he announced that his so-called "Flight for Humanity" would now head to Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand. "There is no doubt in my mind that my father would want it this way. If he were here today he would want to be helping all the people who have been victimized by such a tragedy."
In 1972, it was the ravages of an earthquake that killed some 8,000 Nicaraguans that moved the elder Clemente to action. Now a sub-oceanic quake has spawned a wall of water that has left devastation beyond comprehension. Clemente Jr., who is a broadcaster for ESPN, said that collection drives in New York, Pittsburgh and Puerto Rico would be relaunched, and said he would be on a cargo plane bound for Asia within 10 days or so, with more than eight tons of food, water and medical supplies.
"Every flight that goes out there is a flight for humanity," said Clemente, adding that the effort was being coordinated through the American Red Cross.
:clap:
