Sports car show raises funds for poor

Students of The Sisters of Mary School pose with Charlie Rufino, Sister Liliveth Gustilo, Dieter Reichert, and Inquirer’s Alex Prieto.

The streets of BGC roared with excitement on a recent Sunday morning as several sports cars—from classic to current models—zoomed and vroomed, demonstrating speed and strength, while bystanders couldn’t help but marvel at the beauty of the sleek road beasts.

It was no ordinary Sunday gathering for members of the The Burgos Circle Car Club and the Manila Sports Car Club, who brought their priceless Porche, Benz, Maserati, Mustang, Viper, Lamborghini, Camaro, Corvertte, Ferrari and other high-performance cars, to participate in the Sports Cars for a Cause.

Already the third worthwhile cause espoused by the sports car club, the car show event was able to raise almost P1 million worth of scholarships for 20 students of The Sisters of Mary Schools (SMS), a congregation that runs boarding schools for indigent students in the country.

The Sisters of Mary started its operation in the Philippines in 1985, and has since established four boarding schools in the country, also known as Boystowns and Girlstowns.

The institutions serve as schools and lodgings for deserving students coming from very poor families. These children are provided for with free quality high school education, food, clothing, shelter, medical and dental services.

The school aims to achieve excellence in both academic and technical courses. Apart from the prescribed curriculum, students receive intensive vocational skills training, such as automotive servicing course.

The choice for The Sisters of Mary School as beneficiary of Sports Cars for a Cause is attuned with the objectives of the car club.

“At the Boystown, they have indigent kids who go to vocational tech school. In the automotive area, I saw kids learn how to disassemble engines and put the parts back together again. And I said to myself, wouldn’t it be great for those who love cars to have a mechanic they can sponsor through a scholarship? Car companies could also help them. So today we have car companies and the enthusiasts who support the cause,” said Charlie Rufino, a member of the Burgos Circle Car Club and one of the organizers of the event.

“This event is really a great help for us, especially to our students, who will be more motivated in their training in the automotive course,” said Sister Liliveth Gustilo, school principal at SMS Boystown in Silang, Cavite.

Chinit Rufino, with Inquirer’s Marixi Prieto, and Dieter Reichert

Sports car owners gave some of the students, who graced the program on 4th Avenue in BGC, a ride in their sleek cars, an activity the students really enjoyed.

Sixteen-year-old Pier Paulo, who was raised by a single mother in Nueva Ecija, is grateful to the school for the free boarding and education he now enjoys at the SMS Boystown in Cavite.

Seeing 40-plus sports car lined up on the street, he was able to appreciate the automotive course he recently took.

Steven Ensigan, 16, is currently taking technical drafting at SMS Boystown. He marvelled at the cars, which he says provided him inspiration to do better in the future so that one day he will also own a sports car.

“I now appreciate automotive course when I saw the sports cars. I realized automotive is important,” Ensigan said.

Roniel Caliwara, who’s taking up automotive servicing, is thankful for the opportunity to be able to see firsthand high performance cars that run on engines that he is learning about.

Toto Cruz, co-founder of Burgos Circle Car Club, Sister Liliveth Gustilo, The Sisters of Mary school principal, and Charlie Rufino, organizer of “Sports Cars for a Cause”

“We were taught how to make the engine run, how to make it move faster, like these cars having different types of engines. I am lucky I am able to see a lot of different cars, and I want to have one someday,” he said.

“I really like the concept and the mechanism of the car, especially the parts, and how these cars are working or running. People’s means of transportation used be horses, but now in the modern world filled with technology, we can see cars which have the power of more than 100 horses,” said Anthony Antonio, a Grade 11 student at the institution who’s taking automative servicing and maintenance.

He wants to be a mechanic in the military someday.

The Burgos Circle Car Club started a few years ago as sports cars began parking around Burgos Circle then.

“We were parking all kinds of sports cars around the Burgos Circle. And then, we did a charity event. We had a fundraising that benefited the Gat Andres Bonifacio Elementary School in Taguig. After that we did another round of fundraising also for the same public school. This is actually the third fundraising that we are doing. It’s our way of sharing what we have with the less fortunate, deserving Filipino youth. This time, it is for the Sisters of Mary School. We’re raising funds for scholarships of deserving young Filipino mechanics,” said Toto Cruz , Burgos Circle Car Club co-founder.