Belated Congratulations are in order! To PP's Cres and Ferdinand Fernandez and family for the Silver Anniversary of Oasis in its present location. Our Rotary Club has forged a long-time relationship with Oasis which goes almost all the way to the beginning. On a personal note, Oasis has been a part of my life. I grew up in Manila but since my roots are here in Ilocandia and Baguio, I would often pass here as a teener and young adult, after a dip in the beaches of Bauang, just for a snack or a game of Bowling or Billiards. Congratulations also to PP Arsing Ignacio and his Ann IWCPP "Ching", for winning a National Award, the "Gintong Ama/Ina Award" during the National Family and Parenting Week. The award was given last September 24. This was a project of the First Lady, Loi Estrada.

Lastly, congratulations to Rotarian Rick Marquez for the Opening of his warehouse in Balaoan last October 8. Aside from his thriving dealership of pharmaceuticals, Rick is also sole distributor of B-meg and Atlas feeds in his area.

A warm welcome to our Guest of Honor and Speaker, Atty. Damaso Bangaoet, President of the John Hay Poro Development Corporation. With our country's economy in a tailspin we hope to hear some good news from the head of one of the remaining promising growth areas of our Region. Thanks for honoring our invitation, Atty. Bangaoet.

By the way, we received a message that our Club Anniversary with Noli de Castro this coming November 22 ( Wednesday ), will be televised by ABS-CBN. So guys, please look your formal best during the affair, just in case the camera points your way. We don't want any of our Club members to look like Abu-Sayaf fugitives or Jueteng bookies. PP Andy Astom, the Anniversary Chairman still has to call a meeting to decide who the various committee chairmen will be, but I'm sure the details could be threshed out quickly.

The Rotary Foundation Seminar is soon to be held on November 18 ( Saturday ) in Baguio. We hope we can start our Paul Harris Raffle, so we shall be able to give a 1,000 dollar contribution during the affair. I would have to talk with PP Aldy Dy, who is our Rotary Foundation Club Chairman, so we can proceed quickly. I also wish to remind Director Jun Tio to start collecting money from our Paul-Harris Sustaining Members. The exchange rate for Rotary is 44 pesos to a dollar. So 100 dollars would amount to 4,400 pesos. This is much lower than the prevailing non-Rotary rate.

Good luck Jun! Our Trade Fair in the plaza has netted us a tidy sum, which we hope to be able to use for our adopted SPED school. Director Rex and I will soon meet with the principal, teachers and parents of the SPED and North Central School children to formulate plans for the setting up of an RVC in the school compound. Our Board meeting at the Mandarin Restaurant last October 10, ended rather early with Director Rex Mendoza, the host, having visitors. Nevertheless, we finalized a lot of project plans, the majority to be held at the last week of October and the first week of November. I hope I don't suffer another significant rise in BP with Rotary and my work as a physician, virtually leaving me with just enough time for eating, sleeping and saying Hi and Goodbye to my wife and kids.

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