Fernando Gonzalez sat down with ESPN’s Bonnie D. Ford in Miami to talk more in depth about his experiences helping with earthquake relief in his home country of Chile. Here’s the video:
A snippet from the article (nice stuff, click here to read):
He [Gonzalez} traveled home as soon as he could to visit ravaged areas and see what he could do to help. Aftershocks were still rumbling, unnerving already terrified people.
Gonzalez brought his racket wherever he went. Residents of a fishing village stopped salvaging their belongings from their swamped homes for a few minutes to hit with him. He conducted a clinic for kids in the sodden port city of Talcahuano, where lawlessness in the wake of the disaster was nearly as much of a threat as the earthquake itself. Watching people run after a tennis ball so soon after they’d had to run for their lives as the waters rose clearly affected Gonzalez.
“I told them, ‘The only reason I come here is to give a signal that the country is united for you,’” Gonzalez said, his voice still slightly shaky with emotion even now. “‘These kinds of things happen; today we have to do something for you and perhaps tomorrow you have to do something for us.”’
On Monday night, Fernando Gonzalez hosted a silent auction at a semi-private event in Miami attended by Carlos Moya, Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez. Proceeds went to Hogar de Cristo, A Chilean charity supported by Gonzalez.
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