CIS Philippines 50th Anniversary rites; Lolos-Lolas Octoberbest set

FROM my small window September 23 is a red carpet day for the Children’s International Summer Village Philippines. The national association will celebrate its Golden Jubilee Anniversary rites with a simple set of activities to be held at Rockwell Tent, Power Plant Mall, Amorsolo Drive, Makati City starting at 2pm.

John Gayoso, CISV Philippines president, is at the helm of the historic event. In a nutshell, the occasion marks 50 years of sending children, junior counselors and adult leaders to several camps all over the world.

“Join us as we reminisce the years with songs, dances and other special numbers,” Gayoso said in his invitation to the CISVers. The highlight of the afternoon reunion will be the presentation of distinguished leadership and service awards to past and present CISVers who represented our country in various CISV villages held in key cities in the five continents.

A core of 30 CISVers from Bacolod City, Baguio City, Cebu City, Metro Manila, Quezon City and at least five past CISV Philippines presidents and board members are in the honor list. The Baguio awardees are Bing Bangaoet, CISV Baguio president Atty. Moises Cating, Pete Siapno, Lourdes Subido and CISV originals Margie Otero and yours truly.

For the record, I started my romance with CISV in 1970 when I served as the assistant camp director for Program in the international village held at scenic Mambubal, Negros Occidental with Nati Toribio as the camp director. Delegates from Canada, Denmark, Japan, Liberia, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, USA and Philippines lived together in harmony from December 13, 1970 to January 13, 1971. In the same year, Nati and I teamed up once more and conducted the pre-training camp for our delegations to several villages held overseas. The camp was held at Brent School.

I was fortunate to serve as adult leader and guest staff member of the CISV camp held at the College of Education, Becket Park, Leeds 6, Yorkshire, England from July 11 to August 6, 1971. Child delegates Beaver Ledesma, Frederick Fournier, Regina Cariño and Elvira Lopez, who is presently the chairperson of the ABS-CBN Foundation were in my group.

Educator Ray Smith was the village director. The campers who built bridges of friendship were from Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Guatemala, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Romania, Philippines and Great Britain. It was a wonderful camp with one ideal and one goal.

Happily, I was also designated by home office as the overall travel and tour coordinator of the 20 PHL CISVers to Norway, Austria, Germany and England. Our pre-camp tours included a visit to Athens, Rome and Copenhagen while our post-camp tours included Amsterdam, Paris and Nice in France. Concededly, the beauty and grandeur of the places we visited, including our experiences on CISV friendship bridges, were great experiences of a lifetime. Personally, I will never forget the myriad of noble and worthy events I shared with CISV.

Once again, from Dec. 10, 1977 to Jan. 10, 1978, I was assistant camp director for Program with GSP national program director Delia Broqueza as camp director. In attendance were delegates from Costa Rica, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hongkong, Japan, Malaysia, Norway, Sweden, Thailand, USA and Philippines. It was held at the beautiful Anhawan Beach Resort in Iloilo City. No words, no matter how eloquent they may be, can describe the feeling of a CISVer whose constant and enduring mission is to help create a better world anchored on peace, understanding and harmony. Mabuhay CISV Philippines! May our tribe increase!

The 10th annual celebration of the Baguio Elderly Assembly, CSWDO-OSCA Octoberbest 2012 Golden Years Festival is just around the corner. The Senior Citizens Officials for a Day will usher in the city lolos and lolas month-long program Oct. 1 at the City Hall. A select group of 35 elderlies from BARP Foundation, the Philippine Government Retirees Association, Baguio Chapter and from the Federation of Baguio Senior Citizens Associations will take the reins of the local government for a day after oath taking ceremonies.

The honorable congressman, mayor, members of the City Council and 1department heads can at least take a day’s rest with the lolos and lolas assuming their positions for a day. I wish that the incumbent city officials in the turnover rites will voluntarily give their respective salaries for the day to the SCOFAD taking over their positions. I believe that this is a better and logical way rather than the city giving each SCOFAD P1,000 each from the city coffers. It will be more meaningful, too.

The other salient part of Octoberbest are: Oct. 2, ecumenical service at the City Council hall at 9am followed by the opening ceremonies of the photo exhibit of the various senior citizens associations at the City Hall lobby; Oct. 6, grand opening program at the Baguio Convention Center scheduled at 8am with Rep. Emmeline Aglipay of DIWA party-list as guest of honor and speaker. The presentation of the prestigious Gintong Tala Achievers Award to outstanding senior citizens from the city will climax the morning program. More on Octoberbest next week.