Building classrooms one stroke at a time
On May 17, 2014, around 160 swimmers from all across the country trooped over to Mactan, Cebu for the 7th OLANGO CHALLENGE. The OLANGO CHALLENGE started in 2008 when Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) Visayas Executive Committee (VIXCOM) Chairman Jose Antonio Aboitiz thought of a unique way to address the classroom shortage in Cebu’s Olango Island.
The island, stretching around 10.3 square kilometers, is a world-renowned sanctuary of migratory birds. However, poverty in the island is high with many of its population dependent on declining fish catch. Many of its classrooms are decades old and children are struggling to learn in dilapidated facilities.
The OLANGO CHALLENGE was organized by PBSP in partnership with Philippine Swimming Inc. (PHILSWIM) back in 2008. It is the Philippines’ first open water swimming competition and has attracted over 700 swimmers over the last 7 years. More importantly, the event has pooled enough funds to construct eight classrooms for the schoolchildren of Olango Island.
The first two-classroom building that got funded by the campaign was turned over to Candagsao Elementary School. This was followed by another two-classroom building for Caw-oy Elementary School. More classrooms were also built for Tungasan and Talima Elementary Schools.
The Olango Challenge was also organized as a campaign to stress the importance of a clean marine environment, raise awareness on the magnitude of drowning incidence, and promote open water swimming as a sport in the country.
This year, the challenge featured the 6K and 2K male and female competitive categories as well as the 6K and 2K mixed fun categories.
Winners of the 7th Olango Challenge
One of the goals of the challenge is to engage with the public in generating awareness about the challenges our country faces in education. One of the swimmers captured best what the organizers wanted to communicate about why they’re doing this: “This is not for us. This is for you! We live because we want to help!”
All of the participants were winners as all of them will help build more classrooms in Olango Island. Love Casidsid, for example, has been joining the competition for the last 7 years.
Winners for the 2K mixed fun category are: Jenido Fariolen (1st Place), Dale Rennie (2nd Place), and Mario Mararabol (3rd Place). Winners for the 6K mixed fun category are: Michael Flores (1st Place), Ian Gerard Rusiana (2nd Place), and Nico Montinola (3rd Place).
Winners for the 2K male competitive category are: Gebb Cane (1st Place), Aaron Grant Embuscado (2nd Place), and Simon Harvey (3rd Place). Winners for the 2K female competitive category are: Diane Megan Ong (1st Place), Danielle Mae Ballesteros (2nd Place), and Shane Allyne Pareja (3rd Place).
Winners of the 6K male competitive category are: Keith Ashley Ocampo (1st Place), Alfred Valenti Rojo (2nd Place), and Lorenzo Xavier Abello (3rd Place). Winners of the 6k female competitive category are: Loren Dale Echavez (1st Place), Trina Cañeda (2nd Place), and Romylin Niña Ignacio (3rd Place).
Winners received various cash prizes, trophies, medals, gift certificates from SM, and, for the champions, TIMEX watches.
Sponsors and Partners
Sponsors included the Aboitiz Foundation, Inc., Oriental Port and Allied Services Corporation, Pilmico Foods Corporation, PLDT, Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc., Island Buzz Philippines, PASAR Corporation, Plantation Bay Resort & Spa, San Miguel Corporation, Shell Philippines, Speedo, TIMEX, Shangri-la’s Resort & Spa and SM City Cebu. The event was also supported by Crimson Resort & Spa, the Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation, Philinsure, Cebu Trip, Asian Vegetables, Boyla’s Diving Resort and Philippine Life Saving.
See you all to next year’s event.
Please like our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/olangochallenge and also https://www.facebook.com/PBSP.org.