Christmas bonus

Yesterday, we handed out loads of prizes to the 20 winners of our "Christmas Bonus" contest for readers. There were close to 2,000 entries in our contest, which ran for only three days during the recent Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Reinforced Conference Finals.

To give you an idea of what kind of prizes were distributed, here’s a rundown on first prize winner Amparo Jacinto’s haul–a 3D 1.4 liter rice cooker from the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP), a San Miguel Beer wrist watch, Blu Star dishwashing liquid, Blu Star concentrate detergent, Blu Star all-purpose detergent cream, a PBA annual, a bag of Purefoods canned goods, a FedEx tote bag, a case of Sunkist Quick Cool drinks, a Nike tumbler, an Oceanic silver paper weight, a Talk ‘N’ Text Phone Pals coffee mug, a FedEx umbrella, a Nike basketball, a No Fear T-shirt, a Dunlop T-shirt, a Nike T-shirt, a San Miguel Beer T-shirt, a San Miguel Beer collared shirt, a San Miguel Beer cap, an Alaska E-Cow stuffed toy, a Fubu cap, a Phone Pals collared shirt, a Southeast Asian (SEA) Games–Manila 2005–T-shirt from the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), a PATAFA (Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association) T-shirt from president Go Teng Kok, a pair of Nike socks, a San Miguel Corp. jacket, a pair of Adidas singlet and shorts from PATAFA, a black Adidas backpack, a San Miguel Beer bag, a Philippine Basketball League (PBL) bag from commissioner Chino Trinidad, an Adidas jacket from Goody Custodio, a Nike streetball tape, a gift pack from Avia-Converse, a Cebuana Lhuillier shirt, a Sta. Lucia gift certificate worth P3,000 (the balance of P2,000 went to other winners), a Planet Sports gift certificate worth P2,000 (the balance of P3,000 was spread out to other winners), two Emerald Headway magazines ("Inside Stuff" and "Slam"), a Gosen badminton set (two rackets and two shuttlecocks) from Anil Buxani, and more.

That’s how generous our donors were. Imagine we gave away almost the same load of prizes to 19 other winners. It’s our small way of thanking you for your patronage to The Star through the years and our sponsors’ way of sharing their blessings with you.

Here’s a partial list of our donors.

San Miguel Corp (Ira Maniquis and Robert Non).–jackets, caps, T-shirts, gym bags, knapsacks, and a wrist watch.

Sta. Lucia Realty (Buddy Encarnado)–gift certificates worth P5,000.

Alaska (Joaqui Trillo)–basketballs, E-Cow stuffed toys, tumblers, T-shirts.

RFM Corp. (Joey Concepcion)–Sunkist Quick Cool drink packs.

Talk N’Text (Frankie Lim)–coffee mugs, gym bags, collared shirts.

PBA (Commissioner Noli Eala)–three leather basketballs, two rubber basketballs and PBA annuals.

Adidas (Goody Custodio)–backpacks, shirts, jackets and socks.

Nike (Auty Villarama)–basketballs, headbands, finger sleeves, streetball tapes and shirts.

Dunlop Slazenger (Roland So)–three Dunlop T-shirts.

Sonia Trading (Anil Buxani)–badminton sets (rackets and shuttlecocks), T-shirts and basketballs.

PBL (Commissioner Chino Trinidad)–bag, socks, shirts and ball pens.

DSS Productmakers (Dioceldo Sy)–Blu Star dishwashing liquid, Blu Star concentrate detergent and Blu Star all-purpose detergent cream.

And1 (Bobby Bachmann)–tapes of the streetball game between Skip versus Alimoe.

Fubu (Nick Tuason)–shirts and caps.

Footworks International (Tommy Ong)–No Fear T-shirts and caps.

Purefoods (Rene Pardo)–assorted Purefoods canned goods.

Emerald Headway (Maureen Ferrer)–20 packs of two sports magazines each.

FedEx (Lito Alvarez)–umbrellas, tote bags and T-shirts.

Planet Sports (Anton Gonzalez)–gift certificates worth P5,000.

Pro-Star Sports (Jay Gervasio)–Nike tumblers, Nike caps, Nike basketballs and Nike socks.

Cebuana Lhuillier (Danny Francisco)–Oceanic silver paper weights, T-shirts, collared shirts and stickers.

Avia (Jerry Go)–20 gift packs of Avia products.

POC (Celso Dayrit)–SEA Games Manila 2005 T-shirts and socks.

BAP (Graham Lim)–rice cooker.

PATAFA (Go Teng Kok)–basketballs, socks, singlets and shorts.

Philippine Sports Commission (Chairman Eric Buhain)–20 basketballs.

Christmas wouldn’t be the same without our donors. Thank you so much. Merry Christmas to one and all.