( CNN ) -- Victor Cruz had no idea what he would say to a family dealing with unthinkable grief . He just knew he had to be there . That , on this emotional day , was enough . The star New York Giants receiver drove to Newtown , Connecticut , this week to meet with the family of Jack Pinto , one of the 20 children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre . The 6-year-old boy had been buried a day earlier , wearing the No . 80 jersey of his favorite football player . Cruz did n't have any speech prepared . He came to deliver a pair of cleats he had worn two days earlier when the Giants lost to the Atlanta Falcons -- he had scrawled the words `` Jack Pinto , My Hero '' on one and `` R.I.P . Jack Pinto '' on the other -- but mostly he was there to offer support . He listened to the family talk about Jack , sitting in the same chair where the boy 's father watched the Giants beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl 10 months earlier . He played the Madden football video game with the kids , quickly discovering that being there was more important than anything he could say . `` I was a little nervous , '' Cruz said . `` I just did n't know how I was going to be received . You never know , when they 're going through something like that , how it 's going to go down . Once I got there and I saw all the kids there with my jersey on , the family ... the family was outside , and they were still pretty emotional , crying . I saw how affected they were by just my presence alone . '' We hear a lot about the `` power of sports , '' and usually , that phrase is little more than a clichÃ© . But as 2012 comes to a close , there were plenty of examples of athletes using their popularity and influence to make a difference in their communities and beyond . Strangers inspired to honor Newtown victims . There were the New York Mets players , past and present , who rallied around a team employee named Shannon Forde . The media relations director and young mother was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer , so the team organized a massive charity dinner and auction . Up for bids : pitching lessons with former Cy Young Award winners Dwight Gooden , Johan Santana and R.A. Dickey ; hitting lessons from Mets third baseman David Wright ; and signed bats from Yankee stars Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez . There was the story of the New York marathon , canceled in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy . With nowhere to run , thousands of athletes instead spent the weekend in the hardest-hit areas , unloading supplies at shelters or helping to clean up wrecked homes . Some had seen a lifelong dream washed away but instead accomplished something even more fulfilling . There were the Indianapolis Colts players and cheerleaders who shaved their heads to support cancer research . The team 's head coach , Chuck Pagano , was forced to leave the team after he was diagnosed with leukemia . In the months that followed , the team raised more than $ 250,000 , and several local businesses also held successful fundraisers . And then there was the support after the Newtown tragedy . Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson wrote the names of all 20 young victims on his cleats and then scored on a 94-yard touchdown run . Jeter , the iconic Yankees shortstop , called the family of teacher Victoria Soto , who hid her students in a bathroom and died trying to protect them from shooter Adam Lanza . Simple gestures like these ca n't make the pain go away . But Giants head coach Tom Coughlin might have summed up their potential impact the best when he talked to Cruz about his trip to Newtown : `` That family will remember that all their days . And hopefully , some of their grief might at least temporarily be spent in being able to embrace Victor Cruz . '' Cruz first heard that one of the victims at Sandy Hook Elementary was a fan through his Twitter feed . He spoke to the Pinto family on Saturday night from his hotel room in Atlanta , making a promise to the boy 's 11-year-old brother , Ben , that he would stay in touch . So on Tuesday , the Giants ' off day , he drove with his fiancÃ©e and 11-month-old daughter to keep that pledge . He played football in the front yard with some of the other kids in the neighborhood , . `` We got to smile a little bit , which was good for them , '' Cruz said . `` It was a time where I just wanted to be a positive voice , a positive light in a time where it can be really negative . They 're a great family , and they 're really united right now , and it was good to see . `` We reached out to them , and we exchanged information , so we 're going to try as much as we can to keep in contact . Just little things , just to say hello a couple months from now , years , and just say 'How you doing ? ' and stuff like that , just to see how they 're doing from time to time . '' Sometimes , the little things can show that the `` power of sports '' is more than just a clichÃ© . Ways to donate in memory of the victims .
New York Yankees ' Victor Cruz was murder victim Jack Pinto 's favorite player . He visited the family in Newtown this week . He said he plans to get in touch with the PIntos . Like Cruz , many sports stars make a difference in their communities this year .