CEBU CITY, Philippines – After the success of the recently-concluded Chooks-SBP 3X3 Basketball Festival that saw three FIBA records getting set, the Sister of Mary School Boystown and Girlstown have said they would certainly open their doors to future tournaments if it means helping the kids.
The endeavor resulted in crucial points being added to the Philippines’ FIBA rankings but more than the sporting success, the constituent campuses were given a monthly P100,000 grant from Chooks-to-Go to help thousands of underprivileged students coming from all over the country.
“If it is really for the benefit of our students, why not?” said Boystown school principal, Sister Eva Aringo, SM.
“Our students are happy, and if our students learn many things from these kinds of events, why not continue? Our desire is to always make our students happy and satisfied.”
Such projects fall right in line with the vision of the school’s founding father, the Venerable Aloysius Philip Schwartz.
“Wish ng aming father founder na ang mga estudyante they will become always active,” added Sister Aringo. “In fact, our father founder is also athletic, so he is also super active. He was very busy, but also active in sports.”
“So our students also, not only academically, but we want them to develop holistically, so kaya kailangan nila maging active every now and then. That is also their teambuilding para sila’y magkasama-samang naglalaro at masaya sila.”
The two schools were able to host the massive 3X3 tourney that saw a total of 3,036 FIBA-registered kids play their hearts out across almost 100 courts right inside their campuses.
The sisters run a tight ship, but admittedly are also tight on their budget for the thousands of kids that are in their care in Minglanilla and in Talisay. As such, Chooks and SBP couldn’t have arrived at a better time with their financial and athletic assistance.
“Aside from education, yung shelter, yung food. So it’s a great help, yung 100,000 na yan every month,” Sister Aringo explained. “Pwede din pong i-allocate sa sports. Depende po sa aming local superiors. Sa ngayon, dahil ang mga bata ay lagi na ring sumasali sa sports, sa palagay po kukuha dyan.”
“Kung sa ganyan lang po ay every month we are consuming not only 100,000 but almost a million pesos, so the donation is a great help for us to help the basic needs of our students in education. We are helping them, giving them everything they need.”/mga