We have had our fair share of laughs on this site, as that's what most of our material on here aims to do. But it would be hard to goof around after the tempestuous events of the past 24 hours. Tropical Storm Ketsana, more popularly known in local parlance as Ondoy ( yeah, go figure) breezed through the country and pumped in a month's worth of rainfall in a mere 12 hours .
Not a pretty sight. Wait, is that a bus half- submerged?And while a good majority of the populace escaped relatively unscathed, the aftermath left a lot of our friends, family and acquaintances in dire straits. Friends losing homes, vehicles, appliances to the deluge. I would like to think we are a tight-knit running community when push comes to shove, no matter how fractured we may be at times. So I'll be featuring some of the altruistic calls for relief spread throughout our running community.
Bald Runner's Team Hardcore To Run For Andoy Victims
As taken from ultraman extraordinaire Jonel aka Bugobugo's Facebook entry :
Team hardcore will make ENDURUNS 4.5.5 and the Laguna 200k relay a fund-raising activity for the victims of Ondoy.
For every kilometer we will run (250 kilometers) for October(Milo/QCIM/Subic42, Adidas21) and november (PIM42, Timex21) and the Laguna200(each runner does 40k),we ask that you donate 1 peso per kilometer. A collection booth will be set up sa Octoberun sa Sunday at the ROX parking lot. Thank you.
So there. Worthwhile cause, and our resident hardcore ultramen will do the heavy lifting for you. Kudos to Gigi aka The Fit Mommy for the breaking news.
Second Wind As A Hub For Relief Goods
First read this on Timmy aka The Kenkoy Runner's blog. Then I realized Hector of Second Wind emailed me the same thing. I should really check my mail more often. I'm just sorta sick of being bombarded with "YOU WON LOTTERY" emails. Anyway, here's Hector's announcement :
Greetings friends in the running community.
In light of the typhoon that has left most of us emotionally drained, we would like to encourage the running / multi-sport community to pitch in and help out.
Kindly help us spread the word that we are extending help to our friends who were affected by the typhoon ondoy. Lets maximize however we can help, announcements in your blog, multiply, tweeter, or your status in facebook will be greatly appreciated.
Secondwind will be accepting donations:
- blankets
- singlets, jerseys or shirts
- old footwear
- food
- other items that can still be used
we will be accepting until Thursday (end of day) and will donate to ateneo thru Neville Manaois, PUR team principal, secondwind teammate and ateneo professor. Volunteers to pack and help transfer goods on Friday will be most welcome.
Maraming salamat in advance sa lahat ng tulong na maaari niyong mabigay.
Salamat.
So everyone, do help Hector, Neville, and Mickey, some of the nicest guys I have ever met, in this noble pursuit of theirs. Remember, deadline is on Thursday, and any volunteers on Friday would be awesome.
Helping out our Takbo.ph Friends
Okay, this is a bit more personal for me because two of my good friends from Takbo.ph were severely affected by this calamity.
Story #1 : Cherry, better known by her handle Chelly had her house completely submerged, lost everything, and she had to seek refuge for several hours at the roof of her neighbor's house just to survive. As I write this, we're not even sure if she is already safe as we lost contact already. We can only imagine how traumatic and harrowing this experience could have been for her. Support of any kind would be most welcome to a fellow running denizen subjected to the punishing forces of nature.
Story # 2: Edu, or Ed as I fondly call him, is another one of our board regulars in bad shape right now. Floods swept away his house, and last we heard he was hanging on for dear life at a bedspacer room at the back of his house. We eventually lost contact so we have absolutely no idea what happened to him. We are all hoping and praying for the best.
If you want to help out, just check out the thread started out by humanitarian good guy Rico/Sheer Will.
So if you're thinking "Hmmmm why should I help, too bad life sucks bad break boo hoo", let me remind you of the thin line between disaster and safety :
Because a bad break here, a weird touch of circumstance there, and you never know what could happen....
So everyone - be thankful that we are all in one piece, and let's give a helping hand to our comrades who desperately need support right now.
luis, are there any thing we can do, ask help from your ate or something? :) baka we can do something like pack or what for them or something?
besides, she handled the news the other day diba? hehe
i sure hope and pray that edu & chelly are okay :(
Haven't been able to reach her either, naka field din sha eh. Any luck trying? Yeah I hope Ed and Chelly are okay, it's so scary bro am really worried for them.
hi guysm. if you have any extra shirts or singlets, you can send them over to us. here are the details:
http://therainman96.wordpress.com/2009/09/30/simple-lang-pero-rock-isda-revolution-t-shirt-campaign/
thanks!
Thanks posting Raymund,I'll share it with the group :)
hey luis, there are athletes too who need help - the athletes with disabilities. if there is anything you guys can do to provide help, the PHILSPADA office is only at the ULTRA. i have a post about it on my blog. hope you could help spread the word too. ;) thanks!
Hey Vimz! Thanks for the heads up , I'll repost it on the Takbo.ph forums as well so that they may help out in any way they can. Hope you and your family were out of harm's way during the recent deluge. :)
I'm glad that you're okay Luis. It's good that you're on Facebook.. You're on Twitter.. You have a blog. We can so keep in touch!Ü
Russssssssssssssss :) Been too long haha . Haven't seen you in ages :) I finally got your numbers! Thank god! We should all meet up one of these days, lots of kwento :)