THOUSANDS of public elementary school students in San Simon received a first-day-of-class treat from Real Steel Corporation with the distribution of school packs for its Brigada Eskwela activity.

A total of 4,000 Simonian students received school bags and re-usable drinking tumblers during Monday's (June 3) activity, which is part of the steel plant's monthly corporate-social responsibility.

RSC Pollution Control Officer Cyril Hilario said this year's recipients came from elementary schools in barangays San Agustin, Sta. Monica, San Isidro, San Miguel, San Nicolas and San Juan, as well as children of the RSC employees.

"We have been doing this Brigada Eskwela for three years now as part of our CSR activities because our company, under the leadership of our boss Irwin Chua, believes in the value of education," Hilario said.

Apart from the usual school bags and materials, this year's RSC Brigada Eskwela was highlighted by the distribution of re-usable drinking tumblers which is in line with its environmental advocacy.

"Aside from being a social project, we also made sure that we will be able to be part of the solution to the growing volume of solid waste and help in the preservation of environment by promoting the use of re-usable drinking tumblers," Hilario said.

Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Officer Mel Tayag, meanwhile, lauded the continuous support of RSC on the social and environmental programs of the local government and the community.

"The local government has been promoting the use of re-usable drinking tumblers and we are glad that RSC did not only adopt it, but also helped us in advocating for it by giving them to students," he said.

San Miguel Elementary School Principal Mellanie Castañeda, for her part, expressed gratitude to RSC for their unwavering support to San Simon's education sector, which benefits the students and the teaching force.

"This assistance from the Real Steel Corporation creates a ripple effect to the students, their families and the school community. Through the distribution, parents are eased of the burden of shelling out money and in turn, the students had higher morale in going to school because of the new school supplies they have. With energetic students, the school community is benefiting," she said.