Give little support to sports, firms asked

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/06 March) - The British chief executive officer and founder of the American style restaurant here yesterday encouraged corporations to provide support to organizations that help "the people of Davao, especially the kids."

Alan W. Barnett, CEO and founder of the Al's Diner, cited American boxing patron Ron Doran, who helps train young boxers to stand out in the sport.

"As a business, we have a responsibility to the city where our business is situated to help the people in any possible way," Barnett told sports journalists during the Davao Sportswriters Association Forum at the Tower Inn Hotel.

Al's Diner, touted as the little restaurant that cares and home of the giant burger, sponsored the uniforms of the Davao City boxing team under Doran that saw action in the recent Kalilangan festival boxing competition in Gen. Santos City.

After four days of competition, the team brought home two gold, three silver and four bronze medals. A victory party for the triumphant boxers is scheduled on March 8, 2 p.m. at Al's Diner.

Barnett promised to give P1,000 as incentive to the gold medal winners, brothers Engilbert and John Vincent Morante, and P500 and P250 to the silver and bronze medal victors, respectively.

Concerned over the lack of equipment for the daily training of the young boxers, the restaurateur said he is now encouraging other corporations to extend any assistance to the kids who train in rings with holes and without light.

He cited that helping this kind of endeavor is "just giving thank you to the community, the people of Davao, in practical way and it's also an investment in the future".

"Their business comes from the people of Davao and just give back to the people of Davao," said Barnett.

Doran said he is seeking for corporate sponsors to take care of the needs of the young boxers, mostly indigent kids. Jonas Aleonar, regional sales manager of Petron Corporation, said their company has been supportive to the sports development programs in the localities.

"We are supporting various sports programs just like in volleyball, basketball and taekwondo,” said Aleonar who also graced the forum to give an update on the ongoing Petron Basketball Tournament.

Sports organizers acknowledged the vital role of corporate sponsors in staging tournaments as part of the sports development programs saying “without corporate sponsors the program usually dies". (Rico Biliran/MindaNews)