With the Asian Games just a few months away and the Olympics following about a year from now, the Ayala Coop has thrown its full support to the Ayala Center for Excellence in Sports (ACES) in its commitment to help the Ayala Group’s Atletang Ayala program, a program launched in March last year that has adopted eight pioneering Philippine national athletes by providing them part-time employment while training for foreign competitions.
The Coop’s support, which will come through a raffle dubbed “Tulong Para sa Atletang Ayala,” aims to raise funds for the Atletang Ayala program by offering one raffle ticket for every P200 donation to the program. The raffle, which is being held in partnership with AyalaLand Hotels and Resorts, Seda Lio, Sicogon and Airswift, offers a grand prize of three days’ and two nights’ stay at Seda Lio at El Nido in Palawan for two persons with free roundtrip tickets from Airswift.
Prizes at stake
The winners of the grand prize as well as two other grand prizes will be drawn in a grand raffle to be held on July 28, 2023. Four other grand prizes – the second prize giving three days’ and two nights’ stay in Sicogon Island for two with free roundtrip tickets also from Airswift, and the third to fifth prizes consisting of an overnight stay for two in any Seda Hotel property – are also at stake in the grand raffle.
In addition to these, prizes would also be given in a weekly raffle to be held from June 26 to July 21 that will draw two winners every week. The winners will get a stay of three days and two nights at the Coop’s Pineridge Condo in Baguio City, with the winners still being entitled to joining the grand raffle draw.
How to join
Interested parties may join the raffle by filling an online form and clicking the link https://bit.ly/AMPCAA in order to donate. They may choose their preferred mode of payment, including through GCash via Bills Facility. Coop members may also join the raffle through their share capital contribution by acknowledging through e-mail the amount they want deducted and the corresponding number of tickets will be sent to the member.
ACES is actually part of Ayala’s commitment to nation-building by providing holistic support to the country’s emerging Olympic athletes. As Ayala believes that sports can inspire and bring together a nation, it is trying to find a way to help the next generation of Filipino athletes achieve their full potential through ACES.
Pioneering athletes
As part of this program, eight pioneering national athletes have been adopted by the Ayala Group through its various subsidiaries, including recent Southeast Asian Games campaigners Xiandi Chua and Jasmine Alkhaldi, both multiple medalists in swimming. The other athletes adopted by the conglomerate are archers Andrea Robles, Pia Bidaure and Abby Bidaure, karateka Prince Alejo, and fencers Noel Jose and Nat Perez, the Coop’s adopted athlete.
Each Atletang Ayala underwent a rigorous screening process that lasted for a month, Jan Bengzon, ACES program director, explained. “We wanted to make sure that athletes in the program were as accomplished and committed to their professional careers as to their athletic careers. We were amazed to find many applicants exhibited precisely those levels of commitment, in each of those areas. The eight selected are, in our view, the best partners, professionally and athletically,” said Bengzon.
Under the Atletang Ayala program, participating Ayala Group companies would offer full-salaried employment opportunities at part-time hours to the selected national athletes while they train for such international competitions as the Asian Games and the Olympics.