A Renewal

     I am back.

     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!