FORMER Philippines Vice President Leni Gerona Robredo was on top of my list of keynote speakers for the fi rst of the two major events to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the all-volunteer team of community educators called ALLICE.
She lives on the other side of the planet, for one. Wasn’t the idea overly ambitious?
Where would she be in June, after trotting all over the globe to see to her daughters’ schooling while speaking at world-renowned institutions about her eff orts to elevate the lives of her country’s underserved?
We – 14 of us who call ourselves Kumares & Kumpares (that’s co-parent, literally, or confi dante, fi guratively, if you do not speak Filipino) – always try to practice what we espouse in our mission to promote healthy relationships: diversity, equity and inclusion. In team interaction whether verbally or otherwise and in presentations, we aim to be the change to which we aspire.
Our 14th annaul Our Family, Our Future elder care/abuse prevention event was less than half a year away when my dear classmates from 49 years ago began peppering our Viber group with chatter about a meeting with the widow-lawyer who painted the Philippines pink during her 2022 campaign for president. Rivers of all hues of the color of love and kindness cascaded through the nation’s metropolitan areas where her supporters marched in her name before pouring out into rallies where goodwill pervaded.
“Leni,” as most of her compatriots familiarly refer to her, was not declared winner of the election but was stoked to redouble public service with the private organization she consequently formed to spark volunteerism as a way of life. Because isn’t that intrinsic to all Filipinos? And, more importantly to my search for a speaker, isn’t volunteerism and sharing resources to stage free education activities the soul of ALLICE?
We were elated that longtime champions Consul General in San Francisco Neil Frank Ferrer and San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa had already committed to keynote from the Philippine and U.S. perspectives. But for our team dominated 11-3 by women serving a community where women outnumber men, representation clearly was unfulfi lled.
Would the current darling of western media fi nd our grassroots movement worthy? Only way to know was to ask her.
Thanks to my classmates Millie Santamaria Thomeczek and Angge Pacifi co, a personal invite arrived at the intimate Manila meeting with the founder of Angat Pinas, or Lift Philippine Lives.
Faithful Maryknollers, Thomeczek is a retired PH Ambassador to Berlin and Pacifi co is fi ercely devoted to her homeland despite living and leading organizations for peace in her homebase Zurich.
Advocacy is a hallmark of our alma mater which strives to “build a culture of peace, upholding gender equality, and helping save the environment through our advocacy centers whose programs are integrated in curricular and co-curricular activities.”
Thomeczek, 2023 Chair of the Maryknoll/Miriam College Alumni Association, wrote Jaycee Belmonte, Angat Pinas Partnerships & Linkages Manager, to introduce a fellow Communication Arts major without mentioning our request, deferring to me to make the pitch for a video message.
We sent the link to our website www.allicekumares.com, followed by newsclips from previous events, my self-introduction and detailed summary of who we are and why this year is especially signifi cant as it would be our fi rst in-person get-together since October 2019, and our 20th anniversary.
Soon we were emailing talking points, timeline and tech specs.
In late April we released the beautiful fl yer our founding president Bettina Santos Yap designed, little expecting that before the end of May we would receive the coveted video message fi lmed to match our spring fl oral motif refl ecting enlightenment and renewal.
“Will Leni Robredo be at your event,” was a recurring question from excited folks who picked up the fl yer at Bay Area community fairs prior to the event.
“Inspiring volunteers everywhere”