WSR school wins 1st place in McDonald’s Race to Raise

Representatives of the William S. Reyes Elementary School pose with McDonald’s of Saipan executive Natalie Mable Ayuyu-Glenn, McDonald’s Chalan Lau Lau general manager Joyce Asistores, and McDonald’s 2022 Employee of the Year John Michael Navarro at the main restaurant yesterday after the school was named the winner of McDonald’s “Race to Raise” campaign. WSR won $5,000. (CHRYSTAL MARINO)

After collecting over 600 tickets under their name in a three-week span, the William S. Reyes Elementary School in Chalan Kanoa was named the first-place winner in McDonald’s “Race to Raise” competition, giving the school the top prize of $5,000. McDonald’s of Saipan presented the cash prize to school representatives yesterday morning at the restaurant’s main location in Chalan Lau Lau.

The ‘Race to Raise’ fundraiser, held as part of McDonald’s of Saipan’s 30th anniversary in the CNMI, was intended to show the restaurants’ support for the CNMI Public School System, education, and all students. The campaign began on March 1, 2023, and continued until March 19, 2023. During that period, McDonald’s patrons who purchased meals worth $15 and up were encouraged to drop their receipt in a dropbox designated for the school they wish to support. In the end, it was WSR Elementary School that received a total of 602 receipts, thus winning the first-place prize.

“The whole WSR family and community is very excited and happy that we won,” said WSR vice principal Jocelyn Manibusan after the announcement “The prize money that we won will go to our incentive programs for our students and our teachers. You know, to reward them for the successes that we have in school. For example, we have a reading initiative, we have the teacher’s appreciation that is coming up, so all of this will go back to the school for both teachers and students.”

Manibusan also extended her thanks to the students’ parents and to McDonald’s of Saipan. “We would like to thank our parents. We really used social media, we used our PTSA meetings to encourage our parents to bring their children here and to…buy stuff from McDonald’s. We also want to thank our parents that supported their students and made them perform during the anniversary celebration on Saturday. To the McDonald’s company, we thank them for this opportunity. It’s really great that they’re reaching out to the community, and getting the community involved and sponsoring activities like these. It encourages the school community to come together, most especially for…extra funds, funds that can be used…for student initiatives and for teacher prizes….”

Parent Teacher Student Association president Marlon Cabrera, who was also present, shared his gratitude as well. “To the management and team of McDonald’s, thank you for having this ‘Race to Raise.’ For all the other schools that participated, I want to congratulate them too, most especially our parents and staff that came here every other day, or everyday to feed their family—thank you, thank you so much.”

He said the campaign was not only fun, but was a great way to show support to one’s school. “As the PTSA president, I try my best to do everything for the school to improve it, and this was a great opportunity.”

Joe Ayuyu Sr., vice president for McDonald’s of Guam and Saipan, said, “McDonald’s of Saipan values integrity, community, and family, and we are passionate in the young generation to learn and develop important skills for their bright futures.”

As a way of further showing its support of schools, McDonald’s announced that all other participating public elementary schools in the CNMI, including Tinian, and Rota, who did not win will still receive a participation prize of $500.