WHEN God has been good and has blessed you with an abundance of graces, you pause and give thanks. For her 50th birthday, Mardi Mapa-Suplido, once board member of the Third District of Negros decided, to give thanks and celebrate.
Mardi has enjoyed a great life so a purple bash at the Regency in Salcedo Village, Makati was held to share her golden year with family and close friends. She titled her party “Celebrating Simple Joys.”
According to Mardi, it was the first birthday she ever threw in her adult life. When she turned 18 and her parents wanted to come out with a debut party, she chose instead to give the money to the underprivileged.
Why a purple motif? Mardi is as Assumption as you can get and so inspired by our nuns in purple which is also her favorite color, everyone came in purple haze! In sync with her avocation, she has been elected recently as treasurer of the Assumption Alumnae Association’s Board of Trustees.
Siblings and cousins performed songs and dances to her surprise and delight from the musical “Pippin” such as “Magic to Do” and “Corner of the Sky.”
Her friends from St. Louis Dumaguete where she studied in grade school, her Assumption High School classmates in Manila, and college buddies at UP Diliman were among those who came to share the evening with her.
Also to be counted in were the Peace and Human Rights groups she has worked with in Negros and Manila.
With her four kids—Sandi, Sato, Simon and Sari—now grown, Mardi is very much occupied as the country manager of an Australian foundation called Fred Hollows Foundation. The foundation funds community eye care programs of provincial governments around the country. It focuses on health system strengthening to end avoidable blindness in the country and includes in its advocacies support for cataract surgeries, school screening and eyeglasses for children and training of health personnel.
Her work with the foundation brings her to many countries (15 to be exact in 2015) and she shuttles from Manila to Negros regularly. A hectic, tedious, and tiring itinerary but most rewarding.
Although out of the political scene, she is still quite active in the campaign trail for her favored candidates.
Happy birthday, golden girl! May you celebrate many more years of simple joys!