US football hero to build hospital in Mindanao

CHICAGO – This week’s hottest athlete in America is also charity-friendliest, particularly to the Philippines.

Tim Tebow, the Bible-spreading quarterback of Denver Broncos, one of America’s 32 professional football teams, has announced that the foundation named after him and another non-profit organization are teaming up to build a state-of-the-art, $3-million hospital in Davao City.

The Tim Tebow Foundation based in Jacksonville, Florida and CURE International based in Lemoyne, Pennsylvania are going to break grounds for the proposed 30-bed hospital this January.

Joel Worrall, vice president of communications of Cure International, told this reporter in an email, “We do not have a specific date for the ground breaking nor do we know if Tim will be in attendance. The choice of Davao City is related to a number of factors, including need, spiritual makeup of the island, opportunity to build a sustainable operation in that city, and a number of historical factors in the project.”

The hospital is expected to open in mid-2013.

This reporter was alerted of the proposed hospital construction by an article, “Tim Tebow and CURE building children’s hospital in the Philippines,” (http://blog.godreports.com/2011/12/tim-tebow-and-cure-building-children’s-hospital-in-philippines/), written by Mark Ellis of Godreports.

According to the Tim Tebow Foundation (www.timtebowfoundation.org), its partnership with CURE International (www.cure.org/timtebow) will attempt to fulfill its mission to “bring faith, hope, and love to those needing a brighter day, and this partnership will directly benefit children throughout the developing world who suffer from treatable physical disabilities. CURE International, which exists to provide both physical and spiritual healing, operates programs and hospitals in 20 countries and has performed more than 121,000 surgeries in its 14-year history.”