ONE of the supporters of table tennis in the country was greatly affected by flooding brought about by typhoon Ulysses.
Abet Reyes, founder of the Provident Table Tennis Club, saw his facility damaged after flood waters reached as high as the roof of the facility. Twenty-two tables ranging from at least P40,000 to P100,000 each and about 200 paddles submerged in the flood.
“Dumaan ang delubyo,” said Reyes in an interview with SPIN.ph lensman Jerome Ascaño.
Reyes’ facility is one of the training grounds of several collegiate and differently abled athletes. The club began in 2012 when he began enjoying the game and thought of creating it so that he would be able to help less-fortunate athletes go to college.
“Nung lumipat ako dito, isa sa nag-regalo sa house blessing ko, client na nagbigayng pingpong table. Naglaro ako, papawis. Ang naglalaro sa akin, karamihan puro public schools sa Marikina. Why not put one club so that they have a chance to get to college through ping pong,” said Reyes.
Reyes’ mission came true and his facility is one of the training grounds of varsity teams as well as differently-abled athletes.
“Naka-graduate na ako ng 12 to 15 sa college through pingpong. Dito nagtetraining ang most of the varsity teams,” said the 60-year-old Reyes.
Even though his facility was affected by the flood, Reyes remained optimistic, vowing to rebuild the club starting with repairing some of the tables.
“Bubuuin uli, konti konti,” said Reyes. “I started this with two tables, became three, became four, became five. Now I have 22 tables. Konti konti ‘yan (ibubuo uli),” said Reyes.
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