New details aboutGeorge H.W. Bush‘s philanthropy are continuing to come to light after the former presidentdied at age 94 in November.
Among the most secretive of Bush’s good deeds was his sponsorship of a Filipino child named Timothy,The Gazettereported. Even the boy did not know that Bush was his benefactor through Compassion International.
The connection started about 18 years ago when Bush attended a Christmas concert in Washington, D.C., where performers handed out packets about the organization.
“To everybody’s surprise, all of a sudden George Sr. raises his hand in the middle of his security entourage and says, ‘I want one!'” Wess Stafford, Compassion International’s president emeritus, toldThe Gazette.“All of these security people were like, ‘Has anybody screened this? Does anybody know if this is okay or not?'”
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”He really threw himself into it,” Stafford told the outlet. “He would write to little Timothy and Timothy would write to him, and anything that Timothy said that was interesting, President Bush would write right back with a comment on it. You know, ‘Thank you for the picture of that beautiful rainbow. You know, we had a rainbow like that right outside my house just last week.’”
The Bush family.JOHN MOTTERN/AFP/Getty
To conceal who he was, Bush signed up under the name George Walker and used Stafford as a middleman. But sometimes his letters dropped hints.
“The first time he started breaking our little security rules was when he sent a picture ofhis dog, Millie, and he added, ‘This is Millie. She’s met lots of famous people,’” Stafford told the newspaper. “And I thought, ‘Okay, that’s cute, but boy, that’s starting to slip some little secrets in there.’”
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Bush nearly crossed the line again when discussing his holiday plans. “Then years later, he wrote, ‘We’re going to have Christmas this year with my son at his house,’” Stafford recalled toThe Gazette. “And then he adds, ‘Oh, and he lives in a big, white house.’ And I’m like, ‘Come on, Mr. President. You are really pushing the envelope here.’”Bush eventually transferred the sponsorship to his Stafford’s executive assistant Angie Lathrop, who met Timothy in 2010.
“Angie is the one who told him, ‘Your former sponsor is someone that I know pretty well, and he was the president of the United States,’” Stafford said. “And Timothy, he was so dumbfounded, he was speechless. And he says, ‘Well, I knew that he was a kind and encouraging, wonderful man, but I had no idea.’”
The story was news even to Bush’s spokesperson Jim McGrath.
“Had no idea — ever — that 41 did this, but not the least bit surprised. The kindest, most giving man,” McGrath tweeted on Sunday in response toThe Gazette‘s article. He added the hashtag #Remembering41.
George W. Bush.Alex Brandon - Pool/Getty
When Bush’s sonGeorge W. Busheulogized his fatherat the National Cathedral on Dec. 5, he said the elder Bush embodiedhis famous phrase for volunteerism, “a thousand points of light.”
“He recognized that serving others enriched the giver’s soul,” the former president said. “To us, his was the brightest of a thousand points of light.
source: people.com
