Merry Sharing Christmas
NOW I can really feel that the Christnas season is truly here.
I penned this piece while in my beloved mountain Mt. Banahaw in Quezon, Barangay Sta. Lucia in Dolores and waiting for the 100 or so indigent kids in the area to arrive for our annual Christmas gift giving here.
I believe this is the 20th year already for me since I started it way back as my way of giving back to this mystical mountain where I have learned a lot of life lessons that changed me for the better.
There were only 30 kids invited when this started but every year I kept on increasing the number to what it is now, about 90 to 100. But I was only able to do it because a lot of friends, high school batchmates from Paco Catholic School, former clients, and now from the Philippine Sports Commission( (PSC).
In fact with me now are are two sambo athletes from the Catalan Fighting Systems Philippines from Sambo Philippines, Edemel Catalan and Jomary Torres, who are now in training with the national team.
I sounded out the NSA head Paolo Tancontian if he would like to join me here, and he sent these two athletes, bringing more than 30 gifts for the kids.
Tnen an old friend of mine, head coach of the women’s basketball U’16 national team and of the University of the East women’s varsity team, and she brought a new player from UE, Kayla Gomez, who lives in Brisbane, Australia with her Filipino parents but has decided to pursue her dream of studying college in the Philippines.
And I love this young lady, she ate our lunch of fried galunggong, green mango with bagoong and tomatoes, and fried lumpiang togue with bare hands, and looking forward to inter acting with the local kids here in the simple Christmas program we did.
Since we are staying overnight, she, Jomary, and Edemel are looking forward too to taking a bath under the waterfalls and dipping in the cold stream waters in Sta. Lucia and Kinabuhayan, maybe going inside the tight cave of San Jacob too.
Also with me are Kim Lanto and Jec Carrillo.
Kim has been a regular here from their Young Journalists Association of Mandaluyong (YJAM) days since high school while Jec is only on his second time here. I used to bring students here for leadership and values formation seminars, and like me, they also fell in love with the mountain.
Ai has been here several times, twice with her Lyceum Lady Pirates team , once with the UE Lady Warriors, she even drove me here last year and has joined ne for the first time in this Christmas gift giving.
She shared a lot of things with me on the way here, on and off the record, but I will need a lot more space to share everything on record, which I will in the future.
Back to this initiative of sharing with kids, this is only Part 1 as next weekend, I will be back again with the Cebuana Lhuillier Foundation staff and scholars as Jean Henri Lhuillier has been a regular supporter of this program from way back.
This means another hundred kids as recipients here, that is Part 2 but there is more to come.
For the first time, I am targetting 300 streets kids in Manila to give gifts too with some family packs, but this only became possible because of the many people who extended again their support for this pet project of mine, a lot of them from the world of sports.
Jean Henri is one of them, PSC Commissioners Fritx Gaston and Edward Hayco, consultant JR Espinosa, Benny Lao from dance sports, sambo’s Paolo, Ai of course, Mike Advani, Tom Carrasco, Anthony Suntay, my radio show co host Teddy Perena, Michael Yulo, and a lot more who would rather remain anonymous, happy in the fact that they have been able to help.
It is with their sustained support that I have been able to continue this year after year. But at my age now, I do not know how long I can still continue doing this, something I always tell myself, and every year, except during the pandemic, I end up doing again, and again.
For me, Christmas has indeed changed its meaning. I have come to realize that true joy is not in receiving gifts but in sharing and giving to those who have less in life, and street kids are on the top of the list for me.
Thank you to all who have helped .
A Merry Sharing Christmas to all..
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