A NEW opportunity has opened for the Philippine Accessible Disability Services Inc. (Pads) Dragon Boat Racing Team as it partnered with a hotel to help develop dragon boat racing in Cebu.
“This partnership can help uplift the future of dragon boat races and it also can give livelihood opportunities for paddlers,” said Pads executive officer JP Maunes on the team’s partnership with Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa in Lapu-Lapu City.
Maunes said that the Pads dragon boat paddlers are tasked to develop the hotel’s dragonboat training program and a possible dragon boat team for the employees.
The hotel will also open a dragon boat paddling activity for the guests with Pads paddlers among the instructors.
The members of the Pads Dragon Boat Team are persons with disability.
“It’s an opportunity for us paddlers to experience Shangri-La. It’s a boost for our morale to be tapped by the hotel and be part of the paddling activity which can give livelihood opportunity,” said Maunes.
He added that as part of the partnership, they are allowed to use the hotel’s international standard dragon boat, which is licensed by the International Dragon Boat Federation. The team plans to do their training at the hotel twice a week.
Pads signed a memorandum of agreement with Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort & Spa on Wednesday to formalize the partnership.
Maunes said that there’s a possibility that the hotel will host a dragon boat race in the future.
Shangri-La is not new in sporting events, since the hotel has hosted the Ironman 70.3 Philippines for seven straight years already.
Pads will now have two training venues including their first one at the Adaptive Sports and Recreational Rehab Center in Marina Seaview, Lapu-Lapu City. (RSC)