Tutoring Club coaches triathletes, students in making eco-bricks
A day after the race, Ironman elite triathletes completed their 2018 Regent Aguila Ironman 70.3 Asia Pacific Championships experience with a meaningful pro-environment activity with students of two public schools in Lapu-Lapu City.
Tutoring Club Cebu mentors coached the professional athletes, mostly foreigners, in assembling stools made out of eco-bricks produced by students of Punta Engaño High School and Cordova National High School, whom the mentors also taught.
Ironman lead organizer Sunrise Events Inc. (SEI) arranged the corporate social responsibility activity with the Children’s Hour organization that tapped the Tutoring Club, an Ecobricks Philippines champion, to facilitate the ecobricks workshops.
Led by its director who is an ecobricks champion Jogen P. Mil, Tutoring Club Cebu taught the students how to collect the plastic waste from wrappers and retail bags they use, and stuff these into plastic bottles.
“With the growing awareness now and concern with the use of plastic and its impact on the environment, we taught the students a creative way to care for the planet we live in,” quipped Mil, a certified trainer of Global Ecobrick Alliance.
Mil said they are hopeful that if the 2,300 students of Punta Engaño High School would share the practice of collecting plastic with their community, “it would make a huge difference in saving Mother Earth.”
AtletECO
In the activity dubbed “AtletECOs Unite: An Ecobricking Activity with the Triathletes,” the Ironman participants gathered last Aug. 6 the ecobricks the students made, and turned them into stools the students now use inside their campus.
More than that, SEI, through CEO Wilfred Steven Uytengsu, also a trustee of Children’s Hour, donated some cash and 33 medicine kits to Punta Engano High School through principal Nenette Rafayla.
“We came here as thousands of triathletes, both Filipino and foreigners, and the locals welcomed us,” Uytengsu said.
“Through the project of Children’s Hour, we can give something back to the community,” he continued.
SEI general manager Princess Galura said Ironman triathletes and event sponsors helped them raise funds. She hopes that in the future, they can do the same for the children to continue the program’s vision.
As the ecobricking project would promote the collection of recyclable waste materials, it can help the students make more stools, tables and garden spaces, still with the guidance of Tutoring Club, if needed, Mil said.
Located at the Banilad Town Center, Tutoring Club Cebu is a company committed to develop successful, confident, and self-motivated learners through effective teaching with dedication, enthusiasm, and professionalism. /
With the growing awareness now and concern with the use of plastic and its impact on the environment, we taught the students a creative way to care for the planet we live in.
JOGEN P. MIL Tutoring Club Cebu director