FOR the reigning Miss Cebu 2016, since her coronation night last January 2016, Gabriele “Gaby” Raine Baljak always had the passion to help her fellow Cebuanos and had been working on fulfilling her advocacy to provide a venue that can safely nurture and develop the potentials of young individuals.
There have been plans to close the Cebu City Children’s Park in Pasil, located directly across San Nicholas Church and behind Pasil Market. Hoping for this park to remain open, Gaby had partnered with some friends from the Good Shepherd Children, Kythe Foundation, Pandoo Foundation and Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation to hopefully raise awareness, to help renovate and keep the park open as a necessity for safe public spaces in our city. In this part of town where there are endless numbers of children in extreme poverty, the idea is to transform it, with proper cleaning and maintenance, into a happy place for children to go to, a place to keep them off the streets! For its wide-open space, the Cebu City Children’s park definitely has a lot of potential. Activities through volunteers would be a wonderful idea and should be organized on weekends and after school.
By promoting the Cebu City Children’s Park, Gaby and her mother Merce Abellana (Miss Cebu 1985) decided to celebrate her 20th birthday together with the underprivileged children of the area. Having made a difference in their lives, at Gaby’s birthday event, with over 350 children present, they all very much enjoyed the supervised activities such as educational games, musical and sport performances as well as hearty meals and refreshments from Jollibee, Red Carpet Catering Services and Nature’s Spring Water. Lovett International Inc. and Valentus, on the other hand, provided some generous donations together with some of Gaby’s friends and media partners who helped make her birthday celebration just as fun and exciting as possible! Gaby’s father Stuart Brenner shared that his daughter truly has a big heart and that he initially thought of having Gaby invite a few of her close friends and treat them to a nice dinner to celebrate her 20th, but instead, this is what she chose to do and of course has been very supportive for Gaby’s Love Cebu Kids Day Project.
After her reign is finished, Gaby still wishes to continue making a difference to others. Happy 20th birthday, dear Gaby, and may you have many more blessings to come your way! #MissCebu2016 #Rainereign