#PayITFwd: Reward for Good Deeds

In December 2013, I initiated a campaign similar to PayItFwd. The social media campaign was titled World Blogathon.

The said campaign aims to highlight community heroes by providing them a time to present their advocacies to Cebu Bloggers. In return for their presence, these bloggers committed their time to blog and feature these individuals and organizations worthy causes.
Fast forward, July 5, 2013, SMART Communications contacted me for the launch of its#PayITFwd Campaign. This campaign not only provides an avenue for organizations and individuals to pitch and be heard by the social media influencers. This event will also provide them an avenue to scale up their advocacies with the support and resources that SMART Communications is offering.

PayItFwd Cebu Launch

The event is more or less a collaboration with SMART. In a gist, Cebu Bloggers believes in the cause and therefore it is worthwhile to support it.
Hosted by Foodiecraft Blogger Mary Angeli Bas and Cebu Bloggers VP Bjorn Bernales, the event highlighted five worthwhile talks from real-deal community leaders and volunteers.

 PayItFwd Cebu Speakers

 
Speaker 1: Joselito “Boboi” Costas
A writer and an advocate of sustainable and community-based and grassroots tourism and heritage conservation. He organized the BojoAloguinsan Ecotourism Association, where he sits as consultant (pro bono).He is the president of Hambin, a Cebu-based heritage advocacy group and blogs at outofthemap.tumblr.com
Speaker 2: Bernadette Parco
ABachelor of Science in Medical Technology degree holder but a journalist byheart. She is a general assignments beat reporter of Sun.Star Cebu covering church, health, environment and education issues. Before SunStar, she worked for other local and national publications and served as editor ofseveral online media outlets.She has also received various awards and citations for her work in the media. Along with a good friend, she has started a bag donation campaign for underprivileged schoolchildren in Cebu.
Speaker 3: MikyuMaglasang
Her day job software engineer but is an adventure/photography/writing enthusiast the rest of the time. She has been an active GawadKalinga volunteer since 2011, going from one GK site to another here in Cebu and some parts of Visayas to help build homes and communities.
Speaker 4: Doc.Buboy Tapia
Medical educator at the Cebu Institute of Medicine, Kidney disease awareness advocate; blogger behind Even with PKD Life Goes On (www.cebumd.com).
Speaker 5: InsoyNinal
The executive director of Tsinelas Associations Inc., a non-government, not-for-profit organization that gives educational assistance to poor students in mountain barangays and other depressed areas in Cebu. He is also a columnist and a musician. (www.tsinelas.org) (www.insoymada.com)

PayITfwd: Good Deeds Rewarded

‘payITfwd’ is simply spreading the social good with “smart acts” — the good use of technology.
The official PayITFwd page will show you more information about how you or your friend participate in the campaign.
Smart’s Public Affairs Group head Ramon Isberto emphasized in a press release that “this program support, promote, expand, enhance, reward and enable social good efforts.” In fact, SMART has already allocated around a million pesos to be given away to top 20 payItFwd projects of the year aside from the other giveaways and swags in store for those who had participated.
And I totally agree and praise the initiative. In a community where passivity and slactivism is the name-game, it is worthwhile to recognize community leaders who had done something for the community and not for lip-service alone. This will not only motivate others to do good for their communities, it will also institutionalize the “Pay It Forward” culture.

The Bloggers at the #PayITfwdCebu

Interestingly, this time more than 25 Cebu bloggers arrived at Handuraw Pizza Events Cafe to share their time and their passion — “social sharing”.
I am humbled to say that in this event, the Cebu Bloggers once again proved that we are the “Advocates of the community”. In fact, you can check Instagram and check on hashtag #PayITfwd to see how did we fare so far.
True enough, not all bloggers can be community leaders, but all bloggers or social media influencers should realize that in their hands lie a very potent technology that can viralize the sharing of worthwile stories, examples and endeavors.
Everyone has their own strength and weeknesses. The success of every endeavor is not only measured with the sum of all strenghts but with the division of everyones weakness and the multiplication of everyones strength.
Do you know of any community effort that is worthwile to feature? Please feel free to comment, we might be able to help in sharing the cause. And in tribute to those who attended the PayITFwd, I also created a video: