During tonight’s People’s Choice Awards Ceremony, Tyler Perry was crowned the ‘People’s Favorite Humanitarian’. During the segment showcasing his charity work, the crowd and audience at home were wowed by the way his heart and mind come together to change the lives of those around the world. While some of his fans, as well as his peers, nodded as if they were long aware of the work he’s done around the world, some people were just greeted with the compassion and charitable nature of his spirit and during times such as these, there’s nothing more powerful.
Tyler took the stage with a standing ovation and started off by saying that he never thinks of anything except helping the people he aims to help, so he was thankful for being awarded this honor.
Tyler mentions that he’s been doing a lot of building over the past few years and he’s learned about codes and what’s necessary to have a stable foundation and a steady structure. He has helped build homes in the US and across the world to those in poverty, those suffering from destruction, and those who need safety from whatever it is that challenges them.
He brought up the life safety review that your plans must go through and made it real as he spoke of lights with backup batteries and he pointed them out in the room that the awards were hosted in. If the power were to go out, they would be there to light everyone out of the darkness. He went on to say that in the state of today’s world, it’s more important than ever for us to be the light for each other.
“You don’t even need to search for it because it’s searching for you”, Tyler said of the many things a day that can consume us. Destruction, death, terrorism, racism, negativity, and darkness – they’re right there on our phones on our television, they’re everywhere. He mentions that if you take it in you can be made cynical and when you see the darkness in the world you shrug it off, like ‘that’s just someone else going through it’.
Tyler said he hoped that he has become a balance keeper, all he wants to do when he sees darkness is to challenge it with light, to bring some balance.
“If the power is going out in your life or somebody’s life around and they don’t know if they can find their way out, be that light for them. Let your light so shine before them.”
You can watch his speech below and hear a simple, but long overdue, message.
Watch @IMKristenBell honor @TylerPerry with the award for “Favorite Humanitarian” sponsored by @Enterprise #PCAs pic.twitter.com/YeLy64sTrt
— People's Choice (@peopleschoice) January 19, 2017
In addition to the incredible charity work Tyler has done and will continue to do, Enterprise has donated $100,000 to the Global Medical Relief Fund for Children on his behalf. You can find out more about the fund here and make donations yourself.
As Tyler said, in a world where negativity and darkness seem to want to devour us all, it’s important now more than ever to challenge those things with positivity and light. Hate, anger, and disdain are emotions that will always come easy, it’s not hard to fall victim to them, to let them fester and to grow. It is more important, however, to strive for forgiveness, kindness, and compassion. To remember that we’re all here together, we’re all struggling with something, and if we can help ease anyone else’s journey, we should do it.