Recently, in a visit to Boracay in Aklan, Miss Universe 2017 Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters, a former Miss South Africa, described the island as ‘one of the most beautiful places in the world.’ It was an oft-repeated compliment that, as expected, elicited headline treatment in social media.
Beyond the praise, however, Demi-Leigh has a subliminal connection to Davao City. She married in 2020 American athlete Timothy Richard ‘Tim’ Tebow, winner of the 2007 Heisman Trophy for being the most outstanding US college football player. But who is Tebow?
Over two decades earlier, Tebow’s parents, both Baptist missionaries, travelled to the Philippines and opened a ministry in Gen. Santos City. While there, his mother Pamela got amoebic dysentery and fell into a coma. She recovered and was later informed of her pregnancy. But the complications from her medications produced a dim prognosis. The doctors expected a stillbirth and recommended an abortion. As missionaries, his parents turned down the suggestion.
On August 14, 1987, Tebow, with dyslexia (a learning disorder in reading and identifying speech sounds), was born in Manila. The choice for the national capital was obvious; it is where the more up-to-date medical facilities are found and specialist doctors are readily available.
While growing up in Gen. Santos, his parents, during weekends and special events, occasionally brought him to Davao City where amenities from Manila are available. When his parents traveled to Manila or abroad, they would always fly from Davao. It was in 1990 when the Tebow family finally decided to move back to Jacksonville, Florida, where Tim took up his studies.
The youngest in a brood of five, Tim excelled as an athlete, especially in his running and throwing capabilities. In senior high, he built a reputation as a talented player and earned Florida’s ‘Football Player of the Year’ award. In college, his athletic star continued to shine by winning the country’s highest honor in college football. From thereon, he became a sports celebrity.
Prior to signing a US minor baseball league contract in 2016 with the New York Mets, Tebow was offered a slot in the Aguilas del Zulia, a team playing in the pro baseball league of Venezuela. It was in 2010 that he finally cracked the roster of the National Football League and was eventually selected quarterback by the Denver Broncos.
Outside the rigidities of sport, Tebow remained committed to his philanthropic interests, inspired no less by his missionary parents. His first engagement, in collaboration with students from the University of Florida, was raising funds for Uncle Dick’s Orphanage in the Philippines.
Later, Tim founded the Bob Tebow Evangelistic Association, the non-profit organization of his father; raised money for the pediatric cancer center at Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Florida; and launched the Tim Tebow Foundation. For his efforts, he was accorded the honor as a ‘Great Floridian’ by the state governor in 2013.
The charity has since become the conduit that revived Tim’s link to Davao City. In 2011, Tebow and his foundation partnered to establish the Tebow CURE Hospital, conceived two years earlier, in the city. It started construction the following year and was inaugurated in 2014.
The US$3-million sickbay with thirty beds and specializing in reconstructive plastic and surgeries, is Tebow’s 12th medical project globally. As a facility with a six-story, 3,600-square-meter area, it treats cases of deformities such as clubfoot, cleft lip and palate, untreated burns due to chronic contractures, hydrocephalus and other conditions correctable with surgery.’
The hospital operates through donations and is managed by CURE Philippines, records, on a yearly basis, 4,955 outpatient visits and handles 1,200 surgical procedures. It also features a ‘Timmy’s Playroom’ for recuperating patients, chiefly children from indigent families.
