It started, like most ideas, out of need. The U.P. fighting maroons men’s basketball team needed financial support. So Bong Somera, one of the team managers, a board member of the University of the Philippines Alumni Association, and a veteran of fund-raising activities for various organizations, harnessed the idea of print advertisements to raise funds.
But he expanded this idea, until it became larger than the usual souvenir program, larger even than just the men’s basketball team. With the support of Chitong Rivera, UPAA’s Centennial President, it became what Maroon Pride magazine is today - a collaborative effort of U.P. students and alumni featuring the U.P. varsity teams and athletes, their training and trials, their accomplishments and victories. But even more than that, Maroon Pride has become a catalyst for the development of the sports program of U.P., one of the essential components for determining the completeness of a university as an institute of learning.
The previous issues featured the men’s basketball team (the Inaugural Issue), women’s teams in swimming, table tennis, volleyball and badminton (the Lady Maroons Issue), and the football, baseball and softball teams (the Field of Dreams Issue). Every issue has resulted in substantial financial support for the featured teams that have worked for it – after all, UPAA has ensured that any advertisement solicited by a team, net of publication costs, goes directly to the team.
Today, with the cooperation of the College of Human Kinetics, volunteer students and alumni run Maroon Pride. But the next issues hold even greater promise with the support of the College of Mass Communications and its Department of Journalism. For UPAA, the goal is to source relevant, timely and engaging content, the kind that only U.P. students can create. In turn, it is hoped that Maroon Pride will serve as a laboratory for Journalism students to learn their craft, a platform to publish their qualified works, and a portfolio for showcasing their talents.
But it need not stop there. The Maroon Pride Project will be expanded to include:
• Student and alumni organizations that may want to “Adopt-a-Maroon-Pride-Issue” as a means of raising funds for their own activities and supporting a varsity team.
• Other U.P. Colleges that may want to use the magazine format as a laboratory for their courses such as advertising, marketing, and graphic design.
The next issue, the first for Academic Year 2013-2014, will feature the men’s and women’s basketball teams, primarily because basketball is the kick-off game of the UAAP Season. The second issue will feature the combat sports, and the third and final issue for this academic year will feature track and field. Already, those who work for what started as a one-issue-idea are energized by the thought of the forthcoming issues and volumes, knowing that there will be deeper involvement of more and more sectors of the U.P. community.
Because that kind of support and involvement can only be a source of...
well...
Maroon Pride.
