TSL Foundation donates over $83K worth of laptop bags

TanHoldings Corp. chief executive officer Jerry Tan, third from left, joins Tan Siu Lin Foundation officials and Agape Christian School students and faculty members for a group photo after the turnover ceremony of the donated laptop bags last week at the TSL Plaza. (Contributed Photos)

The Tan Siu Lin Foundation donated 3, 335 laptop bags worth over $83,000 to Public School System and Northern Marianas College students and faculty members and four private schools.

“After Super Typhoon Yutu, a lot of people lost their belongings and these include things that our students and teachers use in school, such as laptop bags,” said TanHoldings Corp. chief executive officer Jerry Tan, who, with foundation officials and staff, visited NMC in February, just a few days before the college started its spring semester, to hand over the laptop bags. TanHoldings Corp. is the foundation’s parent company.

NMC got 1,417 laptop bags worth $35,425. NMC interim president Frankie Eliptico accepted the bags.

“Our students and faculty are deeply appreciative of TSL Foundation’s donation of laptop bags that they can use for their computers and other educational materials,” Eliptico said.

“We have a longstanding partnership with the TSL Foundation and when Jerry Tan and his team reached out to us with this significant donation, our employees and students were especially thankful because it was very timely and very much needed,” he added.

Another partner of the foundation, PSS, received the donated laptop bags last April 2 at its main office on Capital Hill. Tan turned over the 1,690 Dell brand laptop bags worth $42,250 to Education Commissioner Glenn Muña.

“Our foundation has identified PSS as one of our partners, so every year we think about how we can help PSS and its students and teachers. PSS is such a great group to work with because of how they could easily reach out to the students in all grade levels,” Tan added.

This time, the foundation included faculty members as recipients of the donation, Tan said, as a small token of appreciation to these dedicated educators.

“Sometimes, we are so focused to helping our students that we tend to overlook our hardworking faculty members. This donation is our small way of appreciating our teachers and all the faculty members that work with PSS. Thank you for everything that you do for the students and our schools, especially after Yutu. I know you are all doing your best to bring everything back to normal and keep the positive atmosphere in our schools despite the many challenges we are facing as we continue with the recovery efforts on our islands,” Tan said.

Muña, who was joined by PSS faculty staff and other personnel in accepting the bags, thanked the foundation for always including PSS among its many beneficiaries.

“The CNMI Public School System’s continued success is built upon its strong community partnership and collaboration. TSL Foundation has stood alongside our commitment to provide quality educational opportunities to our largest stakeholders of public education: our students,” Muña said.

“As one of our enduring community partners and on behalf of our CNMI Public School System and the State Board of Education, we would like to extend our appreciation to TSL Foundation for continually supporting the needs of our public school students and school district personnel,” he added.

The bags will be made available to 11th and 12th graders on Saipan, Rota, and Tinian and also for the faculty and staff on the three islands.

“The generosity of the TSL Foundation will continue to provide our students the opportunity to learn and grow, and allow for learning to continue with the needed support and assistance that the CNMI Public School System can provide through the support of our partners,” the education commissioner said.

Meanwhile, the foundation also donated laptop bags to Agape Christian School, Eucon International School, Grace Christian Academy, and Saipan International School. A total of 228 laptop bags worth $5,700 were distributed to the four private schools.

“On behalf of SIS, I would like to thank the TSL Foundation for the laptop bags for our juniors and seniors. As a 1:1 laptop school we take great pride in our ability to provide ubiquitous computing to all of our students and this kind donation will help ensure that our students can keep their laptops safe and ready,” said SIS headmaster Ron Snyder.