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Grand slam is defined in the internet as “a set of major championships or matches in a particular sport in the same year, in particular tennis, golf, or rugby union”.  While grand slam is commonly used in sport, I would like to take exemption of it.  The Rotary Club East Urban led by our new Super lady president, Joy Gan, had a grand slam last July 2018, with four major community projects and completed them with flying colors. The super ladies of the RCEU have once again proven to us that we are champions in planning and implementation, an ability which is nurtured and encouraged in all Rotary Clubs throughout the world. However, I would like to add and claim that the members have them in more super generous amount and quantity. Somehow God has blessed RCEU with ladies with boundless energy that defies age and reason. Says who? Me. Can you explain please? Oh, yes, I will.

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After an arduous planning and preparation, the super ladies of RCEU woke up earlier than usual last July 2 to traverse the hinterlands of Cagayan de Oro City for some two hours, passing through a combination of dirt and cement narrow roads bringing with them what the 107 school children of Pamalihi Elementary School of Pagatpat had wished from the stars that littered the skies of their barangay before they went to sleep, school supplies and food.  This is an on-going project of RCEU.

While I missed joining the ladies this July, I was present in the previous visit.  I can say for a fact that whatever personal inconveniences the RCEU ladies hurdled before they left the comforts of their respective homes were soon thrown to the winds.  Like in their previous visit, they were met by the welcoming and excited faces of the school children, their teachers and principal.  The ladies immediately went down to work. They distributed school supplies and books. This program was chaired by Rtn Kanna Idulsa a young mommy herself, who can still identify with the needs of these children and the concern of their parents.  The school children happily opened their supplies kit. With Rotarians Rita Lim and Linda Caragos, she also heartily read some of the books to the children, who were all ears to their reading prowess.  In the same vein, with skill of one who had done it before, PP Abogado taught the children what she had done to her own children many moons ago, the correct way of washing their hands.

With the children’s hands now cleaned, the super ladies then distributed the food bag.  The children delightedly rummaged through the lunch bag, so they could have a full lunch for the day. The chair for the lunch program is Rtn Rachel Polistico. On the same day, RCEU signed a MOU.  RCEU committed not only a regular supply of one sack of rice but also an additional 10 kilos of rice as a supplemental lunch program for 30 identified indigent children attending the school. This program augmented the Department of Education’s program for malnourished/undernourished children attending Pamahili Elementary School.

 

Before we left, the Pamahili Elementary School represented by their principal, gratefully gave the RCEU a Certificate of Appreciation.  After only a week, on July 12, Rtn Georgie Tan and PP Myra Balandra, chair and co-chair respectively, launched another project plan, entitled Medical Mission, a big huge project.  The project involved outside help and support, like doctors with various specialties and a huge venue.  Kong Hua School was tapped for the venue. The date had to be a Sunday, so we could use the classrooms and really the wide-open space of the school’s gym to accommodate the 300 patients from the neighboring barangays.  The project needed a detailed visual/graphic plan for its execution so each RCEU lady would know where to position themselves when the 300 patients would come in.  Every RCEU lady had to commit to have her hands-on deck, starting from the entrance.  On July 29 the project was executed. Kong Hua School was turned into a clinic of sorts. Whew! It was one challenging project. But it sailed smoothly and before we knew it, everyone in our list was served by our doctors who by the way gave their services for free! RCEU ladies being of good hearts themselves never ran out of good hearted friends from the medical world.

 

To be able to do more projects, RCEU needed to do more “impossible” projects that would entail more friends who could pitch in their help without asking them to do “Service Above Self”. In short, we needed a Win-Win project.  RCEU had an expert on that, in the person of Rtn Imee Van der Born, the chair for the project.  Is it by coincidence or is it by God’s help? Or is it both? Regardless, Rtn Imee was able to get “Mission Impossible Fall Out” for our movie sponsorship project. It was full pack, to say the least. But what is more important was that we were able to raise P100, 295.00 income. Whew!

 

The month of July was already running out of days. Undaunted, under the tireless Pres. Joy Gan, RCEU pushed for the formation of Rotaract Club of CDO East Urban.  This project was conceived in July but saw its birth last August 4.  The ladies called on some young members of their own families and that of their friends to join in the program. Before the day ended, Rotaract Club of CDO East Urban sailed into the sea. Now, are you convinced? Under our tireless, most energetic new Pres. Joyce Gan, RCEU opened the new Rotary Year with a grand slam with four heavy projects, the heartwarming Feeding and Distribution of School Supplies Project at Pamahili Elementary School in Pagatpat, the labor and venue intensive Medical Mission project, the huge income movie sponsorship of the Mission Impossible Fall Out and the revival of the Rotaract.  Oh, yes, RCEU was able to do this grand slam because we valued and displayed an impressive teamwork from beginning to the end.  Pres. Joy Gan had taken cognizance of this important quality in her President’s Post in the RCEU Bulletin of Aug 9, 2018.  May I end by quoting/paraphrasing Mother Theresa:  “None of us, including the RCEU ladies, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.” (Press Release)

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