CEBUANA Olympian Mary Joy Tabal gave members of her running grassroots development program in Barangay Guba Elementary School an early Christmas gift, by providing them with brand new running shoes.
Guba is a mountain barangay in Cebu City where the Cebuana runniing phenom hails from.
Tabal and her coach John Philip Dueñas gathered the kids at the Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC) last Saturday to distribute the running shoes donated by a Cebu-based company that wished not to be named.
Tabal told CDN that 47 pairs of running shoes were handed over to selected kids of their grassroots program. The lucky 47 are those who regularly compete in local fun runs and those who regularly attend their training sessions.
“We are very happy for this because most of the kids used tattered running shoes,” Tabal said. “We hope that these kids will be more encouraged to train harder because of this big help.”
Some members of Tabal’s grassroots program made waves during the recent 40th National Milo Marathon-Cebu Leg held at the Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC) by finishing in the top 10 in the 3-kilometer division for both boys and girls.
She revealed that she and Dueñas in partnership with the Cebu City Sports Commission (CCSC) are now coordinating with the Cebu City office of the Department of Education (DepEd) to get a formal endorsement to other schools in Cebu City’s mountain barangays namely Sirao, Taptap, Sudlon I and II and Adlawon to initiate their own grassroots program for running.
Dueñas meanwhile, revealed that the Cebu-based company which gave the brand new shoes is also donating shoes to other Cebu City schools and charitable institutions.