THE Rotary Club of San Fernando (Pampanga) on Wednesday recognized its community partners who supported the club’s numerous projects, activities, and programs during the Rotary Year 2017-2018.
In an interview with SunStar Pampanga, outgoing president engineer Ferdinand Caylao shared that the thanksgiving event dubbed as “Araw ng Parangal at Pasasalamat,” aims to honor the valuable contributions made by the recipient toward the goal of the organization to “Make a difference.”
He noted that as his term concludes on June 30, he would like to give credit and presidential citations to various Rotarians who “gave substantial amount of time, money, effort” in supporting his initiatives, as well as public and private institutions who helped bring his vision to fruition.
“I value partnerships as a powerful element in our community development approach. In fact, I believe that it is the key ingredient in building a rapidly evolving community like the City of San Fernando and the whole province of Pampanga,” he said.
“And so today, I would like to extend our sincerest gratitude to our longstanding and committed partners who placed their confidence in our club. Without them, we would not succeed and attain our goal in promoting better education, health, peace, and understanding,” he added.
He then shared that through the help of their ally in service, the Rotary Club of San Fernando was able to successfully conduct their Modells (acronym for medical, optical, dental, environmental, educational, legal, livelihood, and spiritual) Mission in Barangay Palimpi, Masantol last year.
Aside from that, Caylao relayed that their Riverwalk project also gained support from the City Government of San Fernando and various private partners like the City of San Fernando Water District, KL Foundation, and the San Fernando Electric Light and Power Company, among others.
The project, which was recently turned-over by the Rotary to the city government earlier this year, aimed to enhance and revive the San Fernando River’s natural beauty and develop its Sta. Lucia portion as recreational areas.
The outgoing president said that other highlights of the Rotary Year 2017-2018 include the club’s school room donation in Barangay Sto. Rosario in San Luis and a three-classroom building in Barangay Palimpi, Masantol which will be formally turned-over this July.
In addition, this year also saw the Rotary Club of San Fernando renew its sisterhood agreement with the Rotary Club of Dong Suncheon (District 3610). Some of the projects the two clubs have agreed to support include the construction of four toilet blocks and handwashing facilities in several public schools in the City of San Fernando.
Caylao then encouraged their partners belonging to schools, media, companies, and national agencies, to continue to support the Rotary Club of San Fernando’s advocacies and endeavors, which will now be under the leadership of incoming president Diosdado Mallari, Jr.