For too long, I have been silent. It was
both a result of arm-twisting and personal choice that I became the President
of the Hawaii Chapter of the University of the Philippines Alumni
Association. Because I could not
say no to the association elders, I decided should do something worthwhile with
the two-year term. For 2010-12, I
would lead the organization to establishing a Professorial Chair in the
University of the Philippines so that in some way, all Hawaii alums will have
the opportunity to give back to the University to which we owed so much. We
worked hard to reach our fundraising goal of $36,000, the minimum for a
Professorial Chair. At the end of
our term in August, 2012, we reached our goal.
When I became UPAA president, I knew my
volunteer energies would be limited to just the work with UPAA. I limited my
HALS involvement to its very basic requirements. With fulltime caregiving for Britt, I did not have enough
time, energy or desire to burn any more candles at both ends.
With the help of our other HALS ohana
(Nancy Fujino, Kimi Morton Chun, Jan Medusky and crew, Tami and George Honzaki,
our Yard Sale Crew, and many others), we continued to work on our usual
concerns:
1. Volunteer to facilitate and engage the
MDA ALS support group clients in the monthly meetings;
2. Organize our “Spring into Spring” and
“Fall into Fall” socials in March and September respectively;
3. Hold the annual yard sale fundraisers
at my home in the during the summers of 2010-12;
4. Organize and lead the December Support
Group Christmas parties at the Philippine Consulate General;
5. Conducted my own fundraising every year
calling on family and friends to donate to Hawaii ALS; and
6. Helping with our ALS families’
concerns, such as condoling with those whose family member who passed, cheering
up folks who were hospitalized for acute illnesses, and communicating outside
of meetings, generally through email, with clients, caregivers and persons who
were from out of state but who have heard of our existence.
In those two years, I did not once come
back to this blog.
And now I am and I feel good being back. In July, 2012, Britt retired from being Professor at UH.
Retirement is a whole new ball of wax, let me tell you. But that could be the
subject of another posting. I will
be posting at least once a week. I figured, if I work my neurons hard enough,
they’d come up with something relevant to ALS families. I can’t promise beautiful, edited
prose, but just something useful to share. And perhaps a haiku or two.
This is the year of the snake. This is my
year. It will be fun.
Mahalo!
