BEST & BRIGHTEST: Content with what he has, he reaches out to others
TO OUR READERS: This is one in a series of stories featuring The Gazette's Best & Brightest high school seniors, class of 2009.
Michael Hamamoto knows random acts of kindness - it's his mantra.
He held bake sales in 2007 and 2008 and donated $950 to the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life program. His mother is a cancer survivor.
He sent 40 care packages for Easter to American soldiers serving in Iraq. And since 2007, he's sent more than 1,000 Christmas cards to soldiers; various Army units paid for postage.
Hamamoto used his own Christmas and birthday money to buy the goodies, because "I'm pretty content with what I have," he said.
"He paid for the cards and handwrote each one and tried to make them personal," his friend Alicia Herrera said. "He also encouraged my brother, sisters and me to write weekly to my dad so he would have something during mail call."
Hamamoto, who turns 18 in June, has picked up trash along Colorado Highway 85/87.
"He felt that the exercise did him well and picking up other people's trash would help keep our community green," Herrera said.
When he and his mother helped serve food to the homeless on Sundays last fall, he noticed some of the men's shirts had holes. He thought of the extra-large T-shirts he'd stashed several years ago after he shed 50 pounds - he was saving them for a good cause, and this was it.
He washed the shirts and handed them out to the men during the next few weeks.
Hamamoto's "random acts of kindness" mantra began after he read about people in Florida who moved sea turtle eggs to higher ground so they could hatch safely.
"If I can help anyone at any time of the day or night, I will. My philosophy is that benevolence is important as long as the act is legal," he said. "I feel that life is short and we are all citizens in this ever-changing world. We must help others, and the idea of ‘paying it forward' comes back tenfold."
When Hamamoto picked up what appeared to be a crushed up piece of paper in a school parking lot, he realized it was a $50 bill and turned it in to lost and found.
"If Michael and his mom are driving around town and they have food in the car, like a sandwich, fruit and drinks, Michael will not hesitate to offer them to a panhandler that might be at a roadside," family friend John Kapteyn said. "For Michael, helping others is very important, for he feels that we all need to help each other in order to our world a better place to live."
MICHAEL HAMAMOTO
Cheyenne Mountain High School
Parent: Pauline Hamamoto
College plans: Stanford University
If you had a million dollars, which philanthropic organization would you form and why?
"My mom is a career counselor for the military, so I see the effects of deployment. I'd like to form something to keep the families and soldiers united through communication."
Other details: Colorado Semifinalist and Finalist - Boys and Girls Club Youth of the Year; Mayor's 100 Teens; Daniels Scholar; National Society of High School Scholars; National Honor Society; Academic and Sports Letters; National Honor Roll for Academic Achievement; DECA State Semifinalist; Principal's Honor Roll
