The Sisters of Mary School Boystown and Girlstown witnessed three FIBA records set in the recently-concluded Chooks-SBP 3X3 Basketball Festival at Minglanilla and Talisay, Cebu.
But apart from the goal of setting records and providing points for the country’s FIBA rankings, the constituent campuses were also recipients of a monthly PHP 100,000 grant from Chooks-to-Go to assist thousands of underprivileged kids from all corners of the nation.
And beyond than the financial assistance, the children were treated to two days of playing organized 3X3 basketball which brought unbridled smiles to their faces.
The school has since decided to open their doors to Chooks-to-Go and the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas for future tournaments in the foreseeable future.
“If it is really for the benefit of our students, why not?” said Girlstown’s 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.”
These kinds of endeavors fall right in place with the vision of their Founding Father, the Venerable Aloysius Philip Schwartz.
“Wish ng aming father founder na ang mga estudyante, they will become always active,” said 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 team building para sila’y magkasama-samang naglalaro at masaya sila.”
Overall, the two schools were able to host the massive 3X3 tourney that saw a total of 3,043 FIBA-registered kids play their hearts out across nearly 100 courts right inside their campuses.
The sisters run a tight ship, and are also tight on their budget for the 5000 kids in their care across Minglanilla and 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 [binibigay]. So it’s a great help, yung one-hundred thousand na yan every month,” Sister Aringo continued.
“Puwede 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 one-hundred thousand 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,” she expressed.
