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| Aray Natin, Galing Natin team and locals of Barangay Tabuc Suba, Jaro, Iloilo come together for the groundbreaking ceremony. |
For a game that favors
relatively tall people, it’s rather impressive how basketball has permeated
Filipino culture. To this day, it is the nation’s most popular sport. Here, the
passion is so great that you’d see people play it while wearing slippers,
sandals, or sometimes, even barefoot. But nothing reinstates this fact better
than the presence of basketball hoops everywhere—on the sides of buildings, in
front of sari-sari stores, even in the middle of the street.
More than Just a Sports
Venue
Basketball is so deeply
ingrained in the local culture, that it’s hard to find a neighborhood that
doesn’t have a basketball court tucked somewhere. Virtually every town has it.
In fact, there are more basketball courts than there are barangay health
centers. Moneyed districts may pride themselves with a “covered court,” while
others will have at least some form of clay court.
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| Driven by the desire to provide their community with its first real basketball court, locals from barangay Tabuc Subain Jaro District were brought together to build their own “Court of Inspiration” under the campaign. |
Inspiring Greatness
“To Filipinos, the
basketball court is a symbol of the community spirit,” says Kristine Martinez,
Alaxan FR Product Director, citing how a people bound by a common love for the
game go to the courts not just to hone their skills, but also to bond with the
rest of the community. “It’s a cultural icon, one that carries huge social
impact,” she stressed.
Seeing the potential to
drive social value, Alaxan FR is harnessing the power of the community through
the Aray Natin, Galing Natin campaign—a collaborative effort between small-town
locals to construct these symbols of community, and turn them into something
that moves people to aim for greatness.
For its initial project,
Alaxan FR chose Iloilo. Driven by the desire to provide their community with
its first real basketball court, locals from barangay Tabuc Suba in Jaro District were brought together to
build their own “Court of Inspiration” under the campaign. Upon completion, the place will be
filled with “Legend Markers”—marking areas with powerful messages conveying
accomplishments and legacies of basketball legends—to inspire themselves to
strive hard to accomplish the same. Through the effort, Alaxan FR aims to teach
the locals to embody the values that make champions.
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| For its initial project, Alaxan FR chose Iloilo. Other Courts of Inspiration are currently in the works in various parts of the country. These are in Bacolod, Dumaguete, Tacloban, and Cebu for Visayas; and Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga, Butuan, Davao, and General Santos for Mindanao. |
Rewarding Greatness
Barangay Tabuc Suba is just the first of many
places where Alaxan FR is building Courts of Inspiration, according to Martinez. Courts
of Inspiration will
soon break ground in nine other areas. For Visayas, they are to rise in
Bacolod, Dumaguete, Tacloban, and Cebu. In Mindanao, construction will begin
shortly in the communities of Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Butuan, Zamboanga, and
General Santos. Through these projects, the campaign aims to give members of
communities in different parts of our country pride in having personally built
something that doesn’t just hone their skills, but builds their character as
well.
“I was impressed at
people’s willingness to jump at the opportunity to serve their community at our
initial project in Iloilo and I believe I’d witness the same level of
enthusiasm in the communities where succeeding Courts of Inspiration are to be
built,” added Martinez. “For the noble effort that people have exerted for the
projects, we’re planning to give them a special treat after the completion of
the projects. That’s something they should watch out for,” she ends.
