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NANAY San Francisco Bay Area Celebrates
Parents Day
By Margie Ortigas
June 7, 2003 was an enjoyable moment for close to a hundred guests who attended NANAY-San Francisco Bay Area's
Parents Day Celebration at Holiday Inn in Emeryville.
The NANAY Board and officers, volunteers, friends and
supporters all looked beautiful in their attire. Twenty seniors
from the Woolf House came and enjoyed as well. One of the
seniors, Mr. Mordeno, President of the Fil-Am Veterans' Widows,
Orphans Association, who is disabled, joined his wife at the
dance floor. This has never happened before at our Woolf House
activity.
Guest speakers, SF Consul General Delia Menez Rosal, Alice Bulos,
and
Commissioner on Veterans Affairs Godofredo Gomez, had good and
inspirational speeches to share about NANAY. They encouraged
everyone to continue with the good
work of reaching out to the seniors and above all to have more
youth volunteers.
A young and charming emcee, Divine Marcelo,
did a remarkable job with the slide presentation on NANAY
SF/Bay Area activities for last year. The highlight of the
evening was the giving of the awards
for "Father of the Year," "Mother of the Year," and "Parents of the
Year." Foremost was a Posthumous Award given to Mrs.
Jacinta Bruce, which was announced by Virgie
Buban. We had a moment of silence in her memory. A
bouquet of flowers was presented to the Bruce Family which was accepted
by Romy Bruce. He had very nice words to say about his mom and the memory that is passed on to the next generation. It was a solemn
moment to watch.
Grace Cruz announced the awards for "Father of the Year,"
"Mother of the Year" and "Parents of the Year."
Tony Estrada, recipient of the Father of Year Award, is a Programs
Manager with Pacific Gas & Electric, and Vice President of the Filipino Employees Association of PG&E. He received a wooden carving of a carabao (a symbol of hard work) with the words "Father of the
Year-2003" -- Nanay SF Bay Area. In accepting the award, he
shared with the audience for the first time a poignant moment in
his life -- that is, his dad had told him on his deathbed how
all his life he spent his career as a tax officer and so little
time being involved in the community
and not sharing that value with his children. Tony would
never forget his father's words and that is why to this day, he tries to inculcate in his children the love for helping others, going beyond
self and reaching out to the community. In between
sentences, he stopped as he was a little tearful in his speech
while we all listened to his every word.
Mrs. Alice Bulos, founder of Filipino-American Grassroots Movement was
the recipient of the "Mother of the Year" Award. She received a wood carving of a large bowl on a stand that symbolizes giving and
nurturing. The name was also engraved on the bowl. This was a
real surprise to her to be the recipient.
The "Parents of the Year" Award was given to
Mr. and Mrs. Tria, founder of the Save-A-Tahanan," a community outreach project in the Philippines. They received a
wood carving of two lovebirds kissing each other with similar
the engraved words.
Then came the awarding of the plaques of recognition to our two
enthusiastic and caring youth council Grace Cruz and Divine Marcelo. These two are great examples to
our youth.
The guests enjoyed the rest of the night dancing to the music played by DJ Darrell de
la Cruz, the son of Emmy de la Cruz, a NANAY supporter, who is always willing to help out behind the lines.
It was indeed a wonderful time to remember -- everyone had
each role to play that evening
-- there was much laughter and humor behind the podium such as
when Virgie read the Certificate of Recognition to the girls and
and towards the end she goes: "Signed by JUY BROCE." She must have
been drinking. How everyone chuckled
when she said that!
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