When Kapatids bond

(Editor’s Note: While Bibsy Carballo is on her month-long annual vacation abroad, representatives from the three networks will alternate in writing Live Feed: Butch Raquel for Kapuso, Peachy Guioguio for Kapatid and Kane Choa for Kapamilya. Ev- ery now and then, Bibsy will email a story from wherever in Europe she is.)

Even the relentless sun that day of March 14 this year was not enough to dissuade the more than 5,000 school children of Kasiglahan Village Elemen- tary School in upper Montalban, Rizal, from enthusiastically welcoming their idol, Kidlat, in the person of Derek Ramsay, hero of TV5’s widely popular primetime tele-series. Together with its cast and crew, Derek went to Mon- talban as part of TV5 and its corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm of TV5, Alagang Kapatid’s efforts to reach out and give back to the kids who have been loyal viewers of the show since it was launched last year. It literally took a mountain of effort to bring Kidlat and the kids and everyone involved in Alagang Kapatid to come together that glorious day but just seeing those kids, age ranging from five to 12 years old, lapping up the story-telling session, merrily engaging in games and other surprises made it all worthwhile. What was melodious to our ears was hearing the kids screaming on top of their voices chanting: Kidlat! Kidlat! Kidlat! as soon as they saw Derek on stage, garbed in his Kidlat costume.

Bringing Kidlat outside the small box and up-close and intimate with his audi- ence proved to be a wise choice as borne by the fact that the show’s iconic hero was widely recognized by both the young and old viewers alike — no better test than that for its popularity. Our initial planning involved Alagang Kapatid, which identified a big enough school that would host the event. This was in late February. We only had three weeks to go before classes break for sum- mer so we needed to pinpoint our school-benefi- ciary as soon as possible.

The challenge to mount the event was initially daunting as we were treading on a very tight schedule that included planning and preparing the logistics. But this industry has a way of training you to move and act on an exceedingly fast pace that what you first thought as insurmountable could be done in a breeze. And since this project

is something for the kids and close to everyone’s

heart, we were inspired to double up on work and even “over” multi-task, if such a word applies.

Once Alagang Kapatid’s Warren Ubongen and Arci Mallari of Silid Aralan Inc., identified the school in Montalban, we started the groundwork including on-site visits to familiarize ourselves with the area. We were all gung-ho about putting together our ideas and proposals for the event. But the reality of mounting and executing such a notable project, in such a scale and in so short a time, is nowhere as easy especially when it comes to finding resources. We were stumped. We were apprehensive that the event would be just one of those so-so affairs and all our efforts would be just for naught. With TV5 just dropping out of the blue — saying hello and then goodbye; unable in even the slightest way, to improve the lot of the school, the teachers, more so of the students we wished to serve.

Yes, our TV5 stars have commit- ted to be part of the event and surely seeing their idols in person by these impressionable tykes will leave a lasting impression on their budding memo- ries. But we wanted to give something more; something to remember us by; something that will be useful person- ally or in their studies. We went over our finances and did some numbers- crunching which not only racked our brains but almost ruined our resolve to pursue the project as our cost estimates ballooned. It was at this point that we thought to enlist the help of Tulong Kapatid, the unified CSR and disaster response initiative of the MVP group of companies. It was not difficult to convince them about the worthiness of this project and to solicit their help. In fact, we were just hoping to get them to donate school bags for the 5,000 kids but Tulong Kapatid, to our pleasant sur- prise, came through with much more.

We presented the overall plan to the Tulong Kapatid committee, and right away, help came in all forms: PLDT- Smart Foundation through Esther Santos committed the 5,000 school bags for the kids, camp tents for the school and T-shirts for the teachers/volunteers; two computer units were each given by PLDT and Metro Pacific Investment Corporation through Evelyn del Rosario and Melody del Rosario, respectively; Smart’s Darwin Flores gave library kits; Jeff Tarayao of One Meralco Founda- tion took care of feeding the volunteers; Patrick Gregorio and Patricia Hizon of Maynilad provided the water-station during the event; trucks to transport

the logistics were sponsored by Manila North Tollways Corporation care of Maricar Pangilinan and Makati Medi- cal volunteered their first-aid services through Marge Barro.

It was a swift, seamless and sweet coordinated response for a very good cause. And we could not have asked for anything more. Indeed, for the kids, their teachers and their school, these gifts symbolized not only our hopes for their success in their education but also our wishes that they in turn make use of their education to better themselves, their families, their community and the country in the future.

There was an unexpected heavy downpour towards the end of the program at the Kasiglahan Village Elementary School but this did not dampen the spirits of the school chil- dren whose endless chants of Kidlat! so moved Derek, to later tweet: “This is the best experience I’ve ever had.” The kids, too, that day, could have replied and said “indeed!”