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For the past 17 years, The Filipino Express has provided the Filipino American community the best news, arts and entertainment coverage from around the United States and the Philippines.
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Phil. Forum initiates relief drive for RP typhoon victims
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NEW YORK, December 10, 2004 --- The Philippine Forum has launched a relief fund drive for the victims of the series of destructive typhoons that battered the northeastern part of Luzon last week.
More than 1,500 people were either killed or have been missing as three typhoons and a tropical depression cut a wide swath of destruction in the provinces of Quezon, Aurora, Isabela, Quirino, Nueva Vizcaya, Nueva Ecija, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Mindoro and Bulacan.
Hundreds of thousands of families were rendered homeless and more than 3.119 billion pesos ($55.5 million dollars) worth of property, agriculture and infrastructure were destroyed by the heavy rains, flashfloods and mudslides caused by the typhoons..
As a result, the Philippine Forum, through its BAYANihan Relief Funds campaign, is appealing to the Filipino American community for donations to help the typhoon victims. The Filipino forwarding company, Johnny Air Cargo, has agreed to forward the donations free of charge.
Donations of cash, food, clothing and medicine are most welcome, said Robert Roy, executive director of the Philippine Forum.
Food, clothing and medicine can be sent to or dropped at the Philippine Forum at 87-08 Justice Avenue, Room 2E, Elmhurst, NY, 11373. Donors can also call the Philippine Forum office at (718) 565-8862 if they want their donations to be picked up. Cash donations should be issued in the name of Philippine Forum/ BAYANihan Relief Funds.
The Philippine Forum, a not-for-profit, 501(c) 3, tax-exempt organization, will issue donation certificates for all received items, which the donors can use for their own tax exemption.
The donations will be forwarded to the Philippine Catholic Church’s relief drive and the disaster aid desk of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines.
Members and volunteers of the Forum will also fan out to Filipino restaurants and stores to solicit for donations for the Philippine typhoon victims.
The Forum also expressed concern over the unabated destruction of Philippine forests. Illegal logging, which has denuded the forests in the Sierra Madre mountain range especially in the Quezon-Aurora area, is widely blamed as the main reason for the landslides and flooding in the typhoon-affected areas.
“Although we are raising funds and gathering relief goods for the typhoon victims, we know this is not enough,” said Roy. “This unfortunate event will happen again if the government refuses to exercise political will to stop, once and for, illegal and rampant logging.”
The Forum is also open to coordination with other Filipino organizations that are also having their own relief drive. Filipinos in the New York-New Jersey area are also encouraged to serve as volunteers who may help in solicitation and sorting out and packing the donated items.
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JERSEY CITY --- For Golda dela Merced, singing is her passion, something that she would do to entertain herself and a crowd.
But this time, the rising Filipino-American singer shared her talents to touch other Filipinos’ lives, especially those who want to earn their education but are less fortunate to afford sending themselves to school.
On Oct. 31, Golda did her first solo concert to benefit a scholarship program. She also launched her second CD album, which features original compositions by Vehnee Saturno and Jimmy Borja. Both are multi-awarded songwriters and producers in Manila who have written songs for such artists as Martin Nievera, Pops Fernandez, Regine Velasquez, Sharon Cuneta, Lani Misalucha, Ariel Rivera, Jolina Magdangal, and Sarah Geronimo.
Titled “Golda in Concert”, the event drew a sell-out audience at the Robert V. Van Fossan Theater at Bloomfield College, NJ. Part of its proceeds will go to Aurora Association’s Scholarship (AAS) program.
According to Gloria Guerrero Ramos, AAS president, the concert was to extend financial help to “intellectually gifted but economically disadvantaged students who had [otherwise] no chance to further even their secondary education.”
To date, 37 scholars have been provided full tuition and funds to cover dormitory fees, books and school supplies, as well as allowances for clothing, transportation and miscellaneous expenses.
“It was a concert of many ways,” Golda, a junior in Broadcast Communication at the William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ, said, adding that the kinship she feels with the scholars of the Aurora Association has been strengthened.
The concert included contemporary pop hits and original compositions by Saturno and Borja as well as by Golda’s father, Dr. Bernie dela Merced.
Guest singers were the sultry Grace Antonio, the dynamic Rose Marie Dawara, the irresistible Dr. Boy Pangan, and the velvet-voiced Mark Catarroja, who won the Philippine Fiesta Singing Contest in New Jersey last year.
The new CD, “Golda Unraveled,” contains 14 songs recorded over the past summer at Jimmy Borja’s studio in Los Angeles. An array of West Coast musicians played on the album produced by Saturno and Borja.
Since winning First Place at the Youth Festival Singing Contest in New York, sponsored by the Philippine Independence Day Committee, in 2000, as well as the Share Your Talent contest in Jersey City, sponsored by the Philippine American Friendship Committee and the Association of Filipino Teachers of America, Golda has been much in demand for community events.
She has been a featured singer at Philippine Independence Day celebrations in the New York and New Jersey areas for a number of years and has likewise shared the spotlight with top performers like Pilita Corrales, David Pomeranz, Anthony Castelo, Dawn Dineros, and Joe Mari Chan.
While attending Bloomfield High School, Golda sang with the school choir and the Madrigal Singers. She also played tenor sax for the school marching band and performed major roles in the school’s productions of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, West Side Story, and Hello Dolly. She is also the lead singer of the Band of Brothers, a live band that accompanied her at the concert. -- with reports from Sam Santamaria.
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NEW YORK, December 9, 2004 --- The Christmas season holds a special place within the hearts of Filipinos that live in the United States. Filipinos do not only take the time to celebrate the season but also to reflect on the friends and loved ones that remain in the Philippines and the lives they created here with their families. The “Light a Parol” program would allow the Filipino community to take a moment to celebrate the lives they have created here in the United States and to acknowledge the other communities that they have come to know within their new homes.
On December 11 2004, from 2:00 p.m. to 5:0 p.m., Filipino American Human Services, Inc. (FAHSI) will sponsor its second annual “Light a Parol Christmas Event.”
The Filipino community will sponsor parols that will be placed on a Christmas tree in the Queens Museum of Art in Flushing Meadows Park. Funds raised will go toward FAHSI's various community-based programs and services offered at the Philippine American Center.
Queens Museum of Art is located in Flushing Meadows Park, Corona, NY
According to FAHSI, the goals of the “Light a Parol” are: to raise awareness of the Filipino community and culture in the Queens and Tri-state area; to unify the Filipino community in celebration of the holiday season; to allow the Filipino community to contribute to the beauty of this city; and to raise awareness about FAHSI and to raise funds to support FAHSI's community programs.
There are several sponsorship levels to help FAHSI’s fund drive, namely:
Corporate levels:
a.) $2,000, Tree Sponsor - Paskong Pinoy;
b.) $1,000, Main Star on top of tree, Paskong Parol;
c.) $500, Huge Parol, Noche Buena
Individual levels:
a.) $250, Large Capiz Parol, Bayanihan;
b.) $100, Medium Capiz Parol, Mabuhay;
c.) $50, Small Capiz Parol, Ninong/Ninang;
d.) $25, Lantern Tale, Ate/Kuya; and
e.) $10 - Mini Capiz Parol - Kaibigan
For more information on FAHSI's “Light A Parol” project, contact Ted Martinez at tmartinez@fahsi.org or (718) 883-1295. Online donations are also accepted via Paypal or JustGive.org. Or visit our website at www.fahsi.org
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