Story & photos by Randy S. Peregrino
CHEVRON Philippines and Caltex Havoline recently conducted one of their community initiatives along with ONE Championship mixed martial arts (MMA) athletes.
It was an energetic morning when students of Saint John Bosco Parish experienced the ultimate dream to train side by side with their heroes. Based in Singapore, ONE Championship is the largest sports media property in Asian history. ONE Championship features the best Asian mixed martial artists and world champions—all signed to exclusive contracts on the largest media broadcast in Asia. It is broadcasted to over 1 billion viewers across 118 countries around the world.
“In Chevron, we value people. The passion that drives us toward excellence is the same passion that inspires us to commit to giving the best to our partners, customers and communities. The Saint John Bosco Parish youth are particularly close to our hearts. For many years we have helped them make a sustainable living through livelihood projects, such as the Pugad Pandesal: Manna from Heaven, the Coffee & Saints Café and the Caltex Mobile Mechanics. Just as Caltex Havoline puts the fight back in your engine, we want to empower the youth to fight for their dreams,” said Chevron Philippines and Vietnam Inc. Area Business Manager Joseph Bronfman.
Caltex Havoline brand ambassador Mark Striegl, ONE Championship titleholders Brandon Vera and Eduard Folayang took time off from their rigid trainings just to demonstrate several of their signature striking moves to the parish youths. But the objective was to inspire and empower the students through physical fitness activities and enable them to face life’s toughest challenges through endurance and genuine strength. “These kids have faced very difficult situations at a young age. Not having access to education is one of the most challenging obstacles, but they continually overcome it. I readily agreed to join this activity because I wanted to help empower them,” Striegl said.
Don Bosco Pugad (Parish Urchins Gathered at Don Bosco) Center serves the less-fortunate youths who cannot support their own education. Chevron Philippines and the parish are longtime partners, previously organizing livelihood projects and training programs together to equip them in making a sustainable living. Aside from training, the MMA athletes also imparted inspirational stories and insights to encourage the students to fight hard for their dreams. Also, all three MMA athletes also had a bonding time with the parish youths through a tambourine-making activity. These designed tambourines were auctioned off at the recently concluded ONE: Age of Domination fight event and proceeds were donated to Pugad Center.
Meanwhile, Bronfman shared what to expect from the company in terms of sports and entertainment partnerships in the upcoming year. We [Chevron Philippines] have big plans for 2017. That includes variety of different formats and segments of sports and other entertainment venues. You’ll hear about it as we go through the year as we have things happening every quarter going into 2017,” he revealed. “And I hope that you’ve seen in the market how the brand Caltex and Havoline has been growing over the last few years and now we’re getting more involved in different activities as part of our reach to different audiences and trying to have an impact to the Philippine consumer,” he added.
Image credits: Randy S. Peregrino