School Supply Drive Is On.

My daughter A and I went walking today along the lake and our conversation brought the idea of blogging this next entry. I asked her if she was going to spearhead the school supply drive for the poor Filipino children in the province this year and without hesitation, she said, "Yes!" That is just what I wanted to hear. This marks the fourth year of the drive. You probably all aware that Catanduanes, my province, bore the brunt of the super typhoon Reming, leaving many people homeless. This year's supply drive would really mean a whole lot to these poor children.

This idea was conceived when my daughter S visited the Philippines during her junior year in high school. She saw how poor the children were so when she got back in the USA, she knew she had to do something. She wasted no time and spearheaded a school supply drive along with the Key Club members both in school and in the community.

One third of our 3-car garage, my husband's jewelry room, was filled with school supplies which include backpacks, pencils, children books, rulers, binders, pencil case, erasers, scissors, pad paper, bond paper, etc.

I usually allocated the whole Sunday, my day off, for packing 4 to 5 extra large boxes with the help of my daughters and husband, including our pet, Mango. That is Mango with daughter S in the first picture entertaining us with his antics in between packing.

It took about one and a half month for these boxes to arrive in the province. My job was to make sure that they were distributed to the rightful recipients.

Donations for Education

I might as well get blogging about my family over before I move on to a more interesting and non-family related topics. I know most or some of you will probably get tired of reading posting about my two precious daughters but I will go ahead anyway. After all, this is a free country.

The article below was written by my daughter S 3 years ago during her junior year in high school. She was supposed to be posing with the Marilima kids from Virac, Catanduanes in the photo but for some reason, her second trip to the Philippines didn't happen as planned despite of the preparations she had done. I took her place instead, though I felt the disppointment from each of the children. They were very much looking forward to meeting my daughter for the first time. They made all kinds of preparations for her coming. They brought all kinds of goodies, delicious native food, native gifts, and even showcased the beautiful artworks that they created from the art supplies that they received. Only they didn't get to present it to her personally.

Additionally, from the article you will be able to learn and depict my humble beginnings. Please read on...

A project that holds much meaning to me is the one that I created called "Donations for Education." The inspiration came when I visited the Philippines last summer and saw the elementary school in my mother's village. The children were very poor and the school was very simple and stark. The school's walls were bare, the chairs were broken, and the children barely had any pencils or pens to write with. Also, they had few art supplies and books to read. When I walked back to my mother's old house, I noticed that my cousin was studying for her final exam. She had managed to crowd all of her notes onto a single sheet of paper. When I asked my mother why she did not use more than one piece of paper, she informed me that paper was hard to come by, and it was important that my cousin saved every single piece.

I found this surprising since I remembered that I had reams of paper lying around my house. I also had many old boxes of crayons and markers that could be better utilized by the Filipino children. I had several old backpacks, binders, and folders that I did not need anymore. I realized that if every person in my community could donate a few extra school supplies that were available in their homes, even the simplest items such as a few sheets of paper, it would be enough to support several elementary school classes in the Philippines. I decided that the easiest way to plan out this endeavor would be to create a school supply drive in which community members could easily donate any items relative to education.

To accomplish this goal, I asked my Key Club for their help. I proposed my idea during a club meeting, asking if they could help with the project advertisement, and other related tasks. I was the head chaiperson and called several committee meeting throughout the duration of the project to organize and plan the school supply drive. Together, we decided to hold both a community-wide and a school-wide drive.

Through the project "Donations for Education", more than thirty four hundred school supplies were collected. These included pens, pencils, markers, crayons, colored pencils, backpacks, children books, paper, colored construction paper, scissors, glue, etc. Large shipping boxes were filled to the brim with the supplies (in fact, we were not able to fit all the supplies into the three boxes...which will be carried over into the next year's drive.) The Filipino children received many essential school supplies that would help them with their schooling. Additionally, the students now had backpacks to help them carry their belongings during their long walking trips to and from the school. The teachers were very enthusiastic receiving art supplies, teacher's manual to several textbooks, and children books in english.

Not only did the project affect the lives of many children, it also taught me to believe in myself. Before, I did not expect a project of this much planning and organization to follow through, but I discovered that I do have strength within myself. I learned to set my mind on my goal and understand that obstacles will certainly get in the way, but I just have to overcome them with confidence. The closer friendship that I gained with the rest of the Key Club members were invaluable. Additionally, I gained a connection with my Filipino heritage. Even though the Philippines is halfway around the world, it felt like the distance didn't matter since I was able to help them no matter how many miles away they were. When I received thank you letters and pictures from the students, I was truly amazed to see them holding up school supplies in the pictures that had been previously held by my own hands. I never imagined that I would be receiving letters with personal signatures from the students and creating new friendships. I am truly thankful for this project, not only for the result that it has accomplished, but also for the joy and gratitude that it has instilled within me.

My daughter A has been spearheading the drive for the last two years now.

Mountain Community

The dichotomy between fire and snow. Yes, the prescribed burn continous in our area. The other day, smoke covered our whole neighborhood prompting others to leave the area for a day until the smoke subsided. It is like a flu shot, we need to take a small portion of the smoke now to avoid getting full blown wild fire in the summer.

The first picture shows our community. My husband took it while I was at work. As you can see, we are surrounded with national forest, away from hustle and bustle of the city, about 70 miles northeast of Phoenix. It is one of the few ozone-free places in the nation. It is one of the prettiest places in AZ. Everything is within 10 minute-drive from home; school, church, piano lesson, theater, shopping, etc. I used to walk from work during summer to get my exercise, which usually took me 35 minutes. I would ask my husband to drop me to work and I would walk home. It is a good way of getting my exercise out of the way being that I am a busy mom.

Temperature is around 12 to 15 degrees cooler than in Phoenix. We get nice blue sky most of the time. Our highest temperature that I can remember is 105 degrees F and it seldom goes right below zero for our coolest temperature. We have four seasons: winter, spring, autumn, and summer. My favorite seasons are spring and autumn. We have perfect temperature around this time of year and we don't use heater or air conditioning. People from Phoenix flock here during summer to avail of our cooler weather and camp out by the stream and in the mountains. There are plenty of hiking trails around mostly forest service roads for the national forest, which I enjoy doing.

Burn Baby Burn!

What a quick turn of events in our area! One day it was snowing, the next day, it is burning up! Strange! I saw lots and lots of smoke! I yelled at my husband, "S, come on, hurry, there is fire in nearby mountains!" He came running to the living room and was just as alarmed as I was. I said, "Get the camera, and let's drive to the scene." I was still in my pajama outfit being that today is my dayoff and I like to lounge around in my comfy PJ. "Change into jeans, quickly", my husband dictated. I quickly combed my hair, and I couldn't care less how my face looked. "No one will be able to see me, I will just stay in the car", I whispered. We got on the car, and drove off. When I got closer to the scene, I saw several people in yellow outfit. Who could they be?

As we got closer, the fire seemed to be spreading...
Then I saw people moving...
They are the firefighters...what are they doing?

Ahhh...it finally dawned to us that the fire was a prescribed burn. They were burning the brushes out so that when the fire season comes, the neighboring houses will be safe from possible wildfire caused by lightning. Summer time is our monsoon season and is usually accompanied by scary lightning and thunder. Lightning has caused many wildfires in AZ and I am thankful that our community is doing pre-emptive measures in minimizing such occurences. We live at the foot of the mountains in which wildfire can happen anytime caused by lightning strike. While my brothers dread for super typhoon in Catanduanes, we, here, are fearful of fire. Imagine your newly-built house being engulfed by a ball of fire? One time, I arrived home full of gray ashes being out all day delivering mail, and not to mention the carbon dioxide I breathed in big doses. And fire can linger on for weeks. Older people who have respiratory problems need to be evacuated into a smoke free area or they could die.