Boston Area Fil-Am sets up sports meets to raise money for PH families

Kids thank Boston-Area donors for food aid during the pandemic. SCREENSHOT

Philippine-born Harold Mortel has been organizing fundraisers, table tennis and basketball tournaments to raise funds for people hit hard by Covid in the Philippines.

Harold Mortel hold sports tournaments to raise funds for Covid relief. SCREENSHOT

One of Mortel’s recent fundraisers helped feed 500 families. “They will buy bags of rice or eggs or canned goods and they will split it among other families,” he told Boston25News, whose segment “Positively Massachusetts” featured his efforts.

Mortel moved with his family to Quincy, Massachusetts, when he was 10 years old, but he still has a lot of relatives and friends in the Philippines. Many of them, he said, are in dire need of economic help.

“It’s hard for them to even just survive on a daily basis,” he told the station.

Mortel is setting up an East Coast-wide basketball tournament fundraiser in November. SCREENSHOT

Mortel has worked in the cancer center at Massachusetts General Hospital for 15 years, He said he’s really touched “seeing Filipinos thanking the people of Boston who have been so generous.”

He said his next fundraiser is a basketball tournament in November. Filipino teams from as far as Washington, D.C and Montreal are participating.