While there may be many amongst us leading a self-less life, doing yeoman service, not all get the recognition they truly deserve. Chennai-headquartered KSA Trust — an NGO — decided to recognise such ’silent champions’ in our midst.

This exercise began in 2013 and the Trust has been giving awards to such champions every year in Chennai. This year, they decided to recognise ‘silent champions’ amongst people in Coimbatore.

The First Champions of Kovai Awards were recognised at an event organised at the COINDIA Auditorium in the city on Saturday.

Awards and winners

The awards were under four categories — arts and culture, enterprise, social initiative and sports — and the winners were Mrudula Rai, “Aroma” R Ponnuswamy, Attitude Charitable Trust and Ramesh Ponnuswami.

While Rai imparted dance training to Corporation School children, especially those that did not have the wherewithal to learn the art, “Aroma” Ponnuswamy has carved a niche for himself in building the brand, and Attitude Trust for supporting needy children with educational scholarships.

Ramesh Ponnuswami is the race director for Coimbatore marathon, said K Kalayanasundaram, Managing Trustee of KSA Trust, introducing the champions of Kovai Awards.

A book was released on the occasion and distributed for free. “The concept behind the awards and the stories of the awardees are available on the championsofkovai.org. The interviews were done by the students of Kumaraguru College of Liberal Arts and Science, Coimbatore.

“We want to make this an annual event in Coimbatore. We want someone to take this initiative forward, in every city, for, there is no city without a hero,” the architect of this movement said.

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