Visitors in 8 years… “Mental power is a weapon of life” Hope message for multicultural youth
“My role is to help multicultural children dream bigger.”
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(Bucheon = Yonhap News) Reporter Park Hyun -soo = US football star Heinz Word interviewed Yonhap News at the Bucheon City Museum in Gyeonggi -do on the 29th. 2025. 06. 29. Phyeononsoo@yna.co.kr
(Bucheon = Yonhap News) Reporter Park Hyun -soo = “I’m a person who doesn’t give up. In Super Bowl, I was always the same in my life.”
Korean -American football legend Heinz Word, 49, from the US professional football (NFL) Super Bowl MVP, who stepped on Korean land in eight years, delivered a message of sincere support to multicultural and migration background youths in an interview with Yonhap News on the 29th.
Heinz Word attended the Korea Pearl Buck Foundation (Chairman Ryu Jin) at the Bucheon Museum of Hope with the 2025 Heinz Word at the Gyeonggi Bucheon Museum of Hope.
At the event, Heinz Ward also participated in cooperative art work on the theme of traditional games such as kicking and scabs with multicultural youth with multicultural youth. “I was so precious to sweat and smile with my children,” he said.
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(Bucheon = Yonhap News) Reporter Park Hyun -soo = Heinz Word explains the basics of American soccer to multicultural youth at the ‘Touchdown of Hope with 2025 Heinz Word’ held at the Bucheon City Museum in Gyeonggi -do on the 29th. 2025. 06. 29. Phyeononsoo@yna.co.kr
Heinz Ward looked back at his life and said, “I had a bullying and discrimination in my childhood because of mixed race.” At the same time, his mother’s support was a big help, and he added that he could make me now by vowing to give up.
“My mother endures a much harder time than me. Some Koreans have been a briquette mother. I went to the United States alone in Korea and raised them in prejudice,” he said.
“To understand who I am, I had to know where I came from,” he said. “The identity and multicultural background as a mixed race are the most important assets for making me now.”
Heinz Word was born and grown in Georgia between Korean mother and American father. In 1998, he joined the NFL Pittsburgh Steelers and became the center of the team as a wide receiver and won the 2006 Super Bowl MVP and wrote his history as the first winner of Asia. Since then, he won the second Super Bowl in 2009, and in 2013 he succeeded in completing the triathlon.
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(Bucheon = Yonhap News) Reporter Park Hyun -soo = Families attended with Heinz Word at the 2025 Heinz Word’s Touchdown held at the Bucheon Museum of Gyeonggi on the 29th. From the left, Heinz Ward Mother Kim Young -hee, Heinz Word, Daughter Ron Dean Word, Wife Lindsay Word, and Jangmo Jackie Geogalas. 2025.6.29 phyeononsoo@yna.co.kr
At the end of the event, the Pearl Buck Foundation expressed respect to his dedication by delivering a plaque of appreciation to Heinz Word. The Foundation said, “Since the lack of awareness of multiculturalism, the value of inclusion and diversity has been practiced and contributed to the improvement of youth’s pride.”
In fact, he has been planning a ‘Hines Ward Trip’ with the Pearl Buck Foundation since 2006 to support the US visit to the United States.
Heinz Word said, “It is my role to help children in multicultural families pride themselves and make greater dreams.”
Lastly, he told the teenagers, “We are not alone. We are special. We will never give up and trust ourselves.”
Heinz Word’s life was evidence of how a boy who faced the prejudice of the world because of mixed race was a star of the world’s best stage, and it was a living message to many multicultural children today.
phyeonsoo@yna.co.kr
Report is KakaoTalk OKJEBO
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June 30, 2025 Songgo at 10:36
