PSS is back-to-back ‘Race for Life’ champion

All twelve teams that participated in IT&E’s annual Race for Life scavenger hunt fundraiser last Sunday pose for a photo. (Kimberly A. Bautista)

The Public School System team remains the team to beat in IT&E’s Race for Life scavenger hunt, beating out 11 other teams to emerge champion last Sunday morning.

PSS’ team of five, called “You Gon Learn Today,” won the championship trophy in the 2nd Annual Race for Life despite a drastic change in the race itself and a bunch of new rules.

According to team spokesperson Brandon San Nicolas, patience and trust in one another was key to their success.

“Because this is our second race, we were just patient, we didn’t rush into things, we understood it was better to be safe and we trusted our instincts and our driver and our whole team. We all had different strengths and we all helped each other,” he said.

San Nicolas said that their focus wasn’t winning, especially since they were the last of 12 teams to leave the base along Airport Road.

“We realized where we would catch up and our strong points and we didn’t worry too much about being last. Instead, we focused on where we could catch up,” he said.

San Nicolas and his teammates—Jessica Estrada, Bobby Coldeen, A.J. Mendoza, and Ben Jones Jr.—split $5,000 worth of in-kind prizes among themselves.

“I just want to thank IT&E for putting up another successful event for all the participating teams and we’re just grateful to be a part of this and we were able to support such a great cause,” he said.

Coming in at second place was team Chupachups sponsored by Mayhan Industries. The team took home more than $750 worth of gift certificates.

Team DFS took the Best Spirit award and they won $500 worth of gift certificates and donations also from various businesses.

The “Race for Life” was able to raise about $4,000 for the upcoming Marianas March Against Cancer.

This year, according to IT&E marketing manager Natasha Tomokane, IT&E improved the race by incorporating a lot more of their technological services.

“We felt like last year we set a threshold for how competitive we wanted each of the challenges to be. A lot of the participants noted that it was a little easy and they got done on time, so this year we made it a little more technology-related to our services,” she said.

Instead of finding ribbons, each of the 12 groups were given Shell locations where they would find QR codes to scan. After scanning, the code would generate coordinates that would lead to a location where a task was to be done and documented for proof and sent to the remaining member of the team at the base.

Proceeds from the Race for Life event will go to the Marianas March Against Cancer and is part of IT&E’s fundraisers for the upcoming event.

“…We know it was a Sunday, it’s family day, but…we’re very happy with the outcome,” she said.

The Public School System team “You Gon Learn Today” pose for a photo after being named the champions of the 2nd annual Race for Life scavenger hunt last Sunday organized by IT&E. (Kimberly A. Bautista)