Peeps Talk

The votes were cast for the grand winner among the 2009 Top 10 CNN Heroes Saturday night. It was Filipino Efren Peñaflorida that rose to the competition by having the most votes received online according to CNN website. He is to receive $100,000 for the continuance of his work.

Efren Peñaflorida is the mind behind Dynamic Teen Company, a group of teenage volunteers providing basic reading and writing instruction to kids living in slums or depressed areas. They use a push cart as a means to transport school materials, tables and chairs that they in turn use for makeshift classrooms on each location they go to.

Born from a poor family himself, Efren did not compromise his beliefs of living a straight and decent life over persistent offers for him to join gangs. He knew at a young age that being in a group such as those will not lead to anything good. So instead, he took this adversity in a positive, enriching way by spearheading a push cart classroom that would soon serve around 1,000 children and harness approximately 10,000 volunteers.

The premiere of the CNN Heroes: All Star Tribute will be shown on Thanksgiving, November 26 on the global networks of CNN. Honor tribute will also be presented to the rest of the 2009 Top 10 CNN Heroes namely: Brad Blauser, Roy Foster, Andrea Ivory, Jorge Munoz, Doc Hendley, Budi Soehardi, Betty Makoni, Jordan Thomas and Derrick Tabb.