The Kindness That Keeps Showing Up
August 31 is National Heroes Day, a day to celebrate those whose courage and service make a difference.
To mark the occasion - we spotlight Our Paw Post Heroes, Cherrie Lyn Arcio and Benj Paz, whose everyday acts of compassion make life kinder for stray animals.
DIFFERENT JOURNEYS. SAME COMMITMENT TO CARE.
National Heroes Day asks us to remember courage, sacrifice, and service. It can help us notice the quieter ways people choose to care for others in their everyday lives. For Cherrie and Benj, that intentional care is directed toward stray animals. Their work does not look the same, but both continue to show up where help is needed.
Cherrie brings faith and accountability into her advocacy. Benj makes compassion part of the routes he travels each day. Together, their stories show that meaningful change can begin with a simple decision to stop, notice, and help.
Kindness with Accountability
Cherrie Lyn Arcio AKA @strayfeederbyheart
Cherrie has made caring for stray animals part of her life and her faith.
Her feeding trips require preparation. She brings food, travels from one animal to another, and stays alert to those who may need more than a meal.
Feeding is only the first step
Cherrie believes that once we see a stray animal in need, we need to be accountable for our actions and reactions. She believes that if we see them in need, yet don’t help them, that makes us accountable for the hardship that they experience. Cherrie takes it upon herself to take up multiple roles of being a feeder, documenter, coordinator, and advocate.
By sharing an animal’s condition online, she helps make an overlooked life visible. That visibility can lead to food, veterinary care, confinement, rehabilitation, or support for spay-and-neuter efforts.
She wants more people to see aspins (Asong Pinoy) as animals deserving the same safety, dignity, and respect given to any other dog. Their presence on Philippine streets should never make their suffering feel ordinary.
Care must be responsible
“Compassion and accountability must go together. Helping an animal means following veterinary advice, returning for checkups, prioritizing spay and neuter, and being honest about how limited resources are used,” Cherrie emphasizes.
She opens up about the emotional weight of animal welfare work. Good intentions matter, but lasting care requires patience, discipline, transparency, and the willingness to keep learning.
With tears in her eyes, Cherrie shares her hope that kindness will extend beyond her own feeding routes. She hopes her advocacy can create a “pay it forward” effect, inspiring more people to care responsibly and encouraging others to begin their own journeys as feeders.
Care Along The Way
Benj Paz AKA @benjo04paz
Benj spends much of his working day on the road as a food delivery rider. During his routes, he encounters stray dogs and cats living beside busy streets, storefronts, and neighborhoods. He brings food for the strays and makes time to stop to feed them.
Caring for animals is not separate from his daily routine. It moves with him.
Compassion can fit into an ordinary day
His approach is practical. He sees an animal in need, offers what he can, and continues doing it whenever the road gives him another opportunity.
His story shows that helping does not always require a formal title or a large organization. It can begin with food in a delivery bag, clean water, or a few extra minutes set aside for an animal along the way.
The memory of his dog, Echo, helped shape Benj’s commitment to caring for stray animals. He transformed his grief into action, pouring the love he had for Echo into the work he continues today, and sharing that same care with the animals he meets along the way.
No one feeds alone
He recognizes the community behind every feeding effort. Some people donate dry or wet food. Others provide water, rice, plates, transport, or support for shelters and vaccination activities.
Each contribution may seem small on its own. When those contributions reach feeders, riders, rescuers, and volunteers already doing the work, they help care continue.
“Being a hero is simply choosing to do something for stray dogs and cats, even if you are not part of an organization,” Benj explains.
This is what makes his advocacy distinct; It is mobile, grounded in daily life, and strengthened by people who give what they can.
Different journeys, the same decision
Cherrie’s work is rooted in faith, visibility, and responsible follow-through. Benj’s is woven into movement, routine, and the simple act of making room for animals along the road. While neither story suggests that one person can solve the difficulties faced by all strays, both show how compassion and and every day acts of care can create meaningful change.
This National Heroes Day, their stories invite us to look at care as an action, not only a feeling.
A meal, clean water, veterinary support, a vaccination, a shared post, or a decision to stop can all make a difference.
All photos featured in this article were provided by Cherrie and Benj and are used with their permission.