Christmas contest is back!

It’s that time of the year again and once more, we’re reaching out to our friends, benefactors and sponsors to support our Christmas Contest to share the blessings of the season with our readers.

We’ve run our Christmas Contest for over 20 years as a way to give thanks to followers of our sports section.  We make sure our winners deserve their prizes.  Not only must they come up with the correct answers to our questions and write an insightful essay but they also come from backgrounds that will make receiving the prizes more meaningful.  In the past, we’ve given prizes to a poor market vendor who lives in the underpass of a flyover, a retired press photographer, a public school teacher, OFWs, lower income employees, government workers, students and many others.

Today, we’re launching this year’s Christmas Contest.  As always, it’s easy to join.  Three questions must be answered correctly – 1.  Who were at least three NBA veterans in rosters of the PBA Governors Cup this season? 2.  Who was the last Filipino boxer to win an Olympic medal and in what year?  3.  What were the years when the Philippines hosted the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, including this year?  Additionally, we’re asking each contestant to write a short essay of not more than three sentences on “The Significance of Hosting the SEA Games.”  It’s a challenge to limit the essay to three sentences or less but that’s where being concise and to-the-point are put to a test.

For those joining the contest, it’s an opportunity to voice out their sentiments on the Philippines’ hosting the SEA Games – was it worth the cost, did the negativism leading to the Games dampen the athletes’ morale, why sports is an inspiring source of national pride.  It’s also a quiz of sports knowledge.  For instance, in relation to Question 1, four NBA veterans came to play in the PBA Governors Cup but only one is still in town with his team in the semifinals.  We’re asking to name only three of the four NBA veterans.  

Each entry must contain the sender’s name, age, address, occupation (if student, year, course and school), cellphone number and email address.  An entry that fails to note down those details will be disqualified.

Deadline for the submission of entries is 5 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 13.  Entries may be sent by email to [email protected], Twitter to @TheDeanQuinito, Instagram to @therealdeanquinito, Facebook to @Joaquin Henson and to The Philippine Star sports section, Port Area, Manila.  Winners will be announced in this column on Sunday, Dec. 15.  We’ll give away the prizes to each winner on Sunday, Dec. 22, outside Starbucks in Molito, Alabang.

Last year, we chose 30 winners for our Christmas Contest and distributed P200,000 in cash plus other prizes.  The first prize winner was Arnold Liwanag of Sta. Maria, Bulacan.  He’s the production manager at Vibelle which manufactures Caronia nail polish and nail care products.  Liwanag’s loot included P51,000 in cash.  His wife Marivic gave up a career in quality assurance in food manufacturing to become a full-time housewife caring for their three children.  The Liwanags were classmates and thesis partners who both finished with a chemistry degree at PUP Sta. Mesa.  We’ll determine how many winners to pick this year, depending on how much we’re able to raise in terms of prizes.