Ateneo Grupo 58

Fishermen Helping Fishermen: Blue Boats for Barangay Butacal, part 2

Emailed for posting by Carlos Arnaldo
Compiled by Tony Ortiz, Danny Olivares and TimmyNivera
April 28, 2014




A group of classmates from Ateneo Grade School  ’54, High School ’58 and College ’62, collectively known as Ateneo Grupo ‘58,  through personal contributions, initiated the Grupo ‘58 Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) Rehabilitation Mission as a follow through of it’s earlier Grupo ’58 Relief Mission to some barangays of Northern Cebu and costal barangays of Capiz.  


Their strategy for rehabilitation:  keep it small, keep it focused, work closely through classmates, friends and local groups, build in self-help, tulong-tulungan and long term viability – and underneath, a very deep abiding faith. Operation Blue Boat is just that. And each one can see the effect of his contribution,  motorized blue boats,  fishing to feed their families and the community. Here is the sequel to Operation Blue Boats.

Panay, Capiz, April 25. Eight more Blue Boats were blessed and launched at San Antonio Resort, Roxas City. This was the 2nd of a series of events for 2014 to commemorate Grupo'58's  Ateneo Grade School 1954 60th Anniversary.

Economics specialist Vic Barrios donated one Blue Boat (San Francisco Bay Area Ecumenical Breakfast Prayer Group), members of the Prince of Peace Parish, Albuquerque, NM, USA  offered 2 fiberglass Blue Boats (Our Lady of the Way and Our Lady of Perpetual Help) , and retired businessman Bert Bengzon gave 4 Blue Boats (M/B Barbara, M/B Paul, M/B Bert, and M/B Bengzon). With the balance of Bert’s generous donation and funds from another prayer community of Vic Barrios, three more Blue Boats will be constructed.  

We would also like to thank many others who donated various amounts and those who responded to Ed Roa’s and Rene Añel’s appeal on the Blue Boats for Barangay Butacal’s Facebook site. With the amount donated, we were able to construct one more Blue Boat which we named Ateneo Grupo’58.

The fishermen  beneficiaries of the first eight Blue Boats remitted their first monthly contribution of  PhP 5,000.00 to the pool of funds as ‘pay forward’ to help other fishermen. The 3^rd Wave of twelve Blue Boats will be blessed and launched on June 14, 2014.  By that time a total of twenty eight Blue Boats from 3 Waves will be serving Barangay Butacal, a veritable Blue Boat Fleet. Our goal is to donate fifty eight (58) Blue Boats by December 6, 2014.  

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See related article:
OPERATION BLUE BOAT: a consortium of “Ateneo Grupo ‘58” classmates and friends