My Shirt Story's Top Ten

Action & Event-ure:

After six long weeks, the My Shirt Story Blogging Contest, a project under Electrolux Philippines' Clothes and Hugs to Those Who Need it Most (Electrolux Wash-a-thon clothes donation advocacy year 3), finally reached its conclusion!  And in the competition's culminating event held earlier at the grounds of IMAX SM MOA, the top ten finalists and winners were finally announced!

Here are the Top Ten My Shirt Stories:

10th Place - Rai Lacoste of B&L Magazine for "My Happy Life is with a Tee"

Rai is an avid lover of t-shirts, and because of that he designs them  during his free time, in which most of his shirts were used during gatherings and special occasions.  This shirt designing hobby of his eventually became a sort of income generation for him too.  After his shirt that he designed for his school batch became popular and everyone in his batch started ordering, including those who were abroad. And because of this success, his batchmates organized an outreach event in which they conducted a feeding program for an orphanage.  Aside from donations of his batchmates, a portion of his income from the shirts was used to buy items s to be donated to the orphanage.

Rhian’s special shirt is the shirt that he designed for his batchmates which prompted his hobby into becoming a source of income for him. His shirt helped connect a lot of his friends and was able to help others people too.

9th Place - Iris Acosta of Pinay Ads for "My Shirt Story: My Favorite Shirt for Advocacy"

Iris’ blog entry to the My Shirt Story gave us an insight on the life of a Pinoy Blogger. She started her craft after she left her job 3 years ago, and proved that in spite of the uncertain conditions of being a blogger, it can still be turned into sufficient source of income as long as you work hard for it.  In her entry, she presented the many fun privileges that she had received being a blogger such as exclusive invitations to various events, free products and services, and travel opportunities. Though, she emphasized that though blogging sounds glamorous, there were times that she receive income below than she expects from her craft.  In spite of this, Iris’ special shirt shows a clear message of her craft and how proud she is. Iris is proud to be a Pinoy Blogger!

8th Place - Butchi Filart Dublin of Filipina Explorer for "These Clothes Were Made for Giving"

For her entry, two pieces of clothing were featured and were donated to the Washing Marathon Advocacy. For the first shirt, Butchie shares that she bought the shirt back in 2003 from an Ukay-ukay store for only P20. That shirt has been with her during wash days back when she was in school and in her travels, including her first trip to Boracay with her soon-to-be husband then and her trip to their ancestral home in Bicol in 2005.  Her second featured piece of clothing is very sentimental. It’s a brown coat that she hasn’t used and had been in a box for 15 years along with some letters. According to her, this brown jacket belonged to her dad that she first met 15 years ago.  And after which, she exchanged some letters with him but eventually never got to meet him again.  These two clothes share two different kinds of journey for Butchie: her physical journey to various locations with her shirt and her emotional journey about a father whose only remnant is the brown coat. And for Butchie, through the Wash-athon advocacy, it’s the best time for her to move on and these clothes would be helping out others who would need it more than she does.

7th Place - Melanie Abuel of MEL (My Everyday Life) for "The Sweet Story of Showmanship, Servitude and Survival of My Special Shirt..."

For Melanie, her featured shirt served as a symbol of her showmanship, servitude and survival.  This shirt served as a symbol of her showmanship since this shirt was what she wore during her first time to host a major event, which was a battle of the bands competition for her church. This shirt became a symbol of her servitude since this shirt was also the official shirt of the church organization that sponsored the event, which she was also a part of. According to her, this battle of the bands event was special since this was her organization’s way to reach out to the youth to serve God as well as a means to gather funds to renovate their church. And through this event and organization, she met other people who along with her enjoyed serving others and became her friends as well.   Lastly, this shirt also served as a symbol of survival for Melanie Abuel since the battle of the bands event in which she wore the shirt was the night when the heavy rains of Ondoy started to fall. And in spite of the heavy rains, she traveled from Sorsogon to Manila and returned after the event, braving the risk of being stranded, just to be with her family. 

6th Place - Nonoy Floresca of Trails Unlimited for "My World Vision Shirt Story"

Nonoy’s shirt came to him after he left his work at a pharmaceutical company which he was surrounded by extravagant practices.  He moved to World Vision, after a friend of his invited him to work for the NGO. He initially declined the leaf-letting work for the organization, but he pushed through after his wife talked him into getting the work.  Part of the work at the NGO was an immersion along with the other trainees in a World Vision community in which part of the donations would be going to.  And there he saw the dire living conditions of the people there and met a malnourished child, who in spite of his appearance, is working by carrying 10kgs of raw materials which he brings home, which is 12 blocks away! When he asked the child why he was doing such, the boy answered that it was to gather enough money to cure his grandmother’s cataract. After this encounter with the child, Nonoy was saddened and compared his situation in his previous work in which the expenses were all for extravagant purposes. And because of this, he became more inspired to work for World Vision and treasured the orange shirt that was given to him by this organization. 

5th Place - Richard Mamuyac of Astig Machisms for "What's the story on your chest?"

For Richard’s entry, he gave us a rundown of his favorite shirts per decade. During the 70’s, when he was still young, he was a Star Wars fan and wanted a Darth Vader shirt, but since his dad couldn’t find one, he was given a Voltes V  t-shirt instead. During the 80’s, he declared his support for the band Menudo, particularly to Ricky Martin, when he collected bottle crowns of a certain softdrink to collect fan merchandises in which one of them was a Menudo shirt. For the next decade, the fad was statement shirts and this blogger joined in the bandwagon by having a customized one that said “look at my back” in front and “uto-uto” at the back so that he can prank those who read it. Another shirt that he got during the 90’s was a shirt that commemorated Pinoy Pride during the country’s centennial celebration. And lastly, recently, he and his wife bought couple shirts to show their love for each other each time they wear it together.

But for the Wash-a-thon, Richard will be donating  the one that he wore during the Ondoy flooding. According to him, because their house was flooded and clean water was not available to wash clothes, he had to wear the said shirt for two days.

4th Place - Ruth de la Cruz of Ruthlicious for "My T-Shirt Story: I Think (Thought), Win (Won), Will (Share)"

Ruth shares in her entry the reluctance to participate in this blogging contest since she feels she will be beaten by other bloggers who will likely join the competition whom she feels are better and are usually declared winners in contests such as this  'But she got it wrong this time!  For her entry, she shares that the shirt that she is donating is the one that she won for an essay competition celebrating the Centennial of the ASEAN which the company she is working is part of. Part of the prize she received was a black shirt with the word “think” printed on the center.

According to Ruth, she wants to donate this new and never been used shirt since the message/word written on it is very strong and she hopes that it will inspire anyone who wears and sees it.

3rd Place - Pehpot Pineda of Make or Break for "This is My Shirt Story: Black Shirt Times 3"

For Pehpot, her black shirt is her favorite because it made her look “mayaman”, as her son describes it, in spite of it being bought from a thrift shop. This shirt was also what she wore in three significant events that were very memorable for her. First was during the recognition day of her eldest son who finished the level with flying colors. She recalls how proud and emotional she got on that day, that she asked her husband to be the one to go up the stage to put the medal on their son since she can’t do it without being too emotional.  The second event was during the Pinay Mommies Community grand EB when she  finally met the other mommy bloggers who were just FB friends at the start. And because of that event, she has met her other online friends and connected with mommy bloggers like her.

2nd Place - Lariza Garcia of Mom's World of Arts and Happiness for "A Mother's Shirt"

Lariza shares us several reasons why she loves this particular shirt. According to her, she doesn’t like this shirt, but love it! She loves it because it’s the one that she wears whenever there’s an event that she gets invited to, especially if there’s no dress code for the event. She loves it because it’s comfortable to wear and she feels at home wearing it or whenever she’s out with her close friends. She loves it too since she got to wear it when she got interviewed by GMA's Totoong Buhay for her very talented children, and yet her shirt states a different television network. Lastly, she loves it since as a mom; she gets to wear it anytime she does anything for her family. And now, Lariza hopes that when she donates this shirt, someone else would be as lucky as her and would love this shirt the same way she did.

Grand Prize Winner - Ronald de Lima of Journey of No Fera for "How This Shirt Changed My Life: My Shirt Story"

Ronald, in his entry, shares how his shirt paved the way for his blog and the way to his woman’s heart. According to this blogger, this brown polo shirt was given to him by his mother when he told her that he’s been dating someone from the office.  This shirt has been very special to him since it was the shirt he wore during their first date in Manila Zoo and in their consequent other dates. And eventually the girl she's with became his girlfriend, his very first girlfriend.

This shirt was also the one he wore when he received a perfect attendance award from his office. So feeling very inspired because of his girlfriend and his achievement, he decided to join contests such as an eating competition from a well-known local Japanese fast-food where he was shown in photo in a newspaper. Another contest that he joined was about a website designing contest where he featured his brown polo shirt being worn by the mascot. The website won and his winning entry became his blog. The last contest that he took part with was an art contest that he joined along with his girlfriend. According to him, this was the most challenging one and that it took them several sleepless nights in order for it to be finished. And, during the announcement of the winners, he wore his favorite brown shirt, and eventually their names were announced as winners, 1st prize!

According to Ronald, his shirt has been with him in the early chapters of his blog and his relationship with his girlfriend. And the time has come for him to close and open another chapter in his life because he is going to marry his girlfriend soon (as of this writing, they will be married in a few hours!). And now, he feels that his lucky shirt would be much appreciated by someone else and he hopes that they will be as lucky as him,and that they would love the shirt as much as he did.

The My Shirt Story Blogging Contest was able to help spread awareness about the Washing Marathon advocacy where a Laundry Mobile went around Luzon, Metro Manila and Cebu to gather donated clothes to be washed and cleaned first before it is turned over to Electrolux's partner organizations (DZRH's Operation Tulong and ABS-CBN Foundation's Sagip Kapamilya) to distribute the clothes to those who need it most.  Electrolux Marketing Manager Terry Sales shared, "We thought of the project to make sure that the clothes being donated are cleaned up first before it's given to the beneficiaries to somehow uplift the spirit of the victims telling them that in spite of their lost properties, there are still people who will look after them and support them at their pressing times."

The shirts donated by the bloggers will be turned over to DZRH's Operation Tulong.  DZRH News Director Andy Vital said that this project is very timely as many of our countrymen have been hit by a major typhoon (Pepeng) and another one (Quiel) has entered the Philippine area of responsibility.  DZRH will be holding a relief mission on Wednesday.  Tina Monzon Palma, ABS-CBN Foundation's Head on the other hand said, "This project is another dimension in reaching out to typhoon victims and we're happy to partner with Electrolux for this."

Now on its third year, the Washing Marathon 2011 was able to gather more than 10,000 kilos of shirts!  And in our country's current state, where are in between very strong typhoons, a disaster preparedness project like this will be of great help.

Again, congratulations to the winners and thank to everyone who participated in the My Shirt Story Blogging Contest!  =)

Note: Caption on winning entries courtesy of Carl Cuevas.