The Mikel Lovina Jamborun is a run that commemorates the passing of Mikel Lovina. He passed away at the age of 18 in a car accident 25 years ago.
Mikel and his cousins often used to get together for fun family activities which they called Jamborees. In 2013, family members decided to honor Mikel’s memory with a family fun run. Because the run was another one of their Jamborees, they dubbed it the Jamborun. From then on, the Jamborun became a yearly tradition. And in recent years, it evolved into a charity activity in partnership with NVC Foundation.
Last year, the run generated funds for 58,625 Mingo Meals to feed hungry kids. In previous years, the Mikel Lovina Jamborun raised funds to give LoveBags full of school supplies to children in need.
This year, we raced to raise funds for Mingo Meals for children in Siargao where Super Typhoon Odette first made landfall in December 2021. The storm had wiped out much of the island’s sources of food so children will need nutritious Mingo Meals to supplement their current diet of instant food items. Due to the pandemic, the Mikel Lovina Jamborun 2022 was a virtual race. So, on March 6th, the 449 participants ran wherever they were–some participants ran on the street, others in parks, fields, beaches… some even ran in their living rooms! After their runs, participants sent in the number of kilometers they’d covered. For every kilometer run, the organizers will donate 1 Mingo Meal to our Mingo For Siargao campaign. In addition to funds raised by kilometers run, some people donated directly to our cause.
The organizers have finally finished tallying all the kilometers and added the direct donations. And we are happy to announce that this year’s Jamborun generated funds for 85,439 Mingo Meals for the children of Siargao. What a special way to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Mikel’s passing.
The Jamborun was originally set to take place in January, on Mikel’s birthday. However, as many participants and even our main organizer fell ill, the race was pushed back to March, on the day of the Ironman race. Postponing the race actually ended up generating more meals. The extended deadline allowed more participants to sign up. And the organizers and their friends were originally targeted running just 25 kilometers each (one kilometer to represent each year since Mikel had passed away). However, since the Ironman race course was 42 kilometers long, those who signed up for both races ended up raising funds for even more Mingo Meals. On top of that, when other Ironman participants found out about the Jamborun, they supported the raise with cash donations.
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