Share Your Blessings

giving hope and sharing love

Sep 26

Birthday Project 2013: Blackmores Bridge Run for the benefit of Starlight Children’s Foundation

by Kathleen

It was a beautiful day in Sydney on the day of the Blackmores Sydney marathon. I’ve been in Sydney for 4 months and I’m enjoying every moment of it. A lot of proud firsts in life and would definitely cherish for a lifetime.

I was grateful for my friend, Reg who joined me that day. We’re both part of the Bridge Run. Our category starts at 9:00am. However, we didn’t actually started running at 9:00am since everyone is just starting to enter the race. Our actual start time was some minutes after 9:30am.

The 9k run is pretty much easy than the 14k. Haha! I’m thinking that it is because of a lot of factors: we’re “more” prepared than our first run; the running course is a bit easier than before; and it’s definitely shorter than the last.

I am also indebted for all those who supported my cause via Starlight’s JumpStart. I was able to raise $650 for this event and was the top 4 Individual fundraisers (as of writing). I was amazed that people would actually sponsor me for this run. I also would like to acknowledge those who helped me to spread the word. It’s not easy to ask for donations or look for sponsors so sharing these to your network of friends is very much appreciated.

We ended the race after an hour and we really had fun. The only problem we had was the first drinking station was after 4-5k already! We were so exhausted and thought that we’ll break down and won’t make it to the end. I didn’t bring my own bottle of water since based from my previous run, water station is available every 2-3k so it’s convenient. Imagine our delight when we saw the first drinking station! Hahaha!

Once again, thank you very much for your generosity and time for this fundraising event. My first Birthday Project in Australia was a success!

Update: My friend Elaine & JZ sent $15 as donation as well early this October. So my fun was raised to $665. Yey!

Birthday Project 2013 Thank you

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Aug 24

Getting to know more about Starlight Foundation

by Kathleen

As I was learning more about the Starlight Foundation, I get so excited to join all their events. Currently, they have this movie nights event where you host a group of people to watch a specific movie. I also got excited to see a fun-run on mid September. I did the Sydney City2Surf this month just for fun, so why not do it again for a cause. It’s the how things go here in Australia. I’m not sure how they fundraise around here before the first fun run. My aunt told me that people do something to fundraise and the marathon is one of them.

Starlight Jumsptart

The fun run is called Starlight Blackmores Sydney. I’m not quite sure what Blackmores mean but that is how it’s called. The Starlight Children’s Foundation is one of the official charities listed on the Blackmores fun run page.

Starlight is the only organisation to have a permanent presence in all major paediatric hospitals throughout Australia – delivering programs 7 days each week to children with all types of illnesses & conditions where and when they need it most.

I called Starlight foundation to learn more about this fun run and the collaboration with the “Celebration Donations – Donating in lieu of a gift” program. I was able to talk to Tegan who willingly assisted me on how to combine the two. So they called Everyday Hero who is responsible for the donation pages and informed them of my concern. After a day, the just merged it and shifted my account to JumpStart instead of the Celebrations! How quick was that? 🙂

So instead of the Celebrations event page, I now have the JumpStart page that will be up and active starting today up until the 30th of September. I really wish I can raise up to $1000. If not, at least I tried.

Support me, okay? 🙂

 

For more information on the Starlight Children’s Foundation, please visit www.starlight.org.au or call 1300 727 827

Birthday Project 2013

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Nov 8

Birthday Project 2012: Sponsors

by Kathleen

As mentioned, a separate page dedicated to our sponsors who didn’t hesitate to share their blessings to these kids. We were overwhelmed with the response and some of them were friends of our friends. Truly we are grateful for their big heart.

First and foremost, thank you to the FMA Sisters/Salesian Community for approving our Birthday Project to be held on their grounds, Don Bosco School, Sta. Mesa. To the Sisters, most especially to Sr. Ailyn, in-charge with the Oratories and Sr. Carmen who helped me during the planning and on the day preparations, thank you so much! During the event, Ms. Recci, my Grade 6 Adviser, was there to join and help us go about with our event. It was such a heart-warming experience to be back and see former teachers again.

The CCA Manila Team

Our major sponsor for the event was The Center for Culinary Arts Manila. They were very much willing and kind enough to sponsor the food for the street children. They not only prepared for the kids but also included the volunteers to taste their recipe made with love. They even had loot bags for the kids too!

Thank you to all those who signed up in our “Sign up for a Cause” campaign. Your participation means a lot to us. We had more than 500 names who supported our endeavor. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

Lovely Hollera, Marketing Officer of CCA Manila

Thank you Lovely Hollera, Marketing Officer of CCA Manila who is also my former bus mate for accommodating us in your busy schedule. May the CCA Team be blessed for having a generous and compassionate heart.

We also would like to thank all who donated in kind. Indeed, we appreciate everything we got no matter how big or small it is. To enumerate:

  • 10 dozens of Pastel from Dr. Viel Vincent Jose
  • 15 Lunchboxes and a bagful of Toothpastes from NuffNang Philippines
  • Candies and Sweets from KCat Yarza and Valeri Ann Chua
  • 50kg of Rice from Celia Abalos
  • Canned goods from Apple Abalos and Baby Ozato
  • Noodles from Michelle Abalos
  • Pansit Canton from Dhen & Rheena Sison-Panser
  • Ballpens from Bryle Ian Bolong
  • Small pouch bags from Ralph Alcantara
  • Event Banner/Tarp and Thank you cards from Nico Orillano

10 dozens of Pastel from Dr. Viel Vincent Jose

15 Lunchboxes and a bagful of Toothpastes from NuffNang Philippines

Candies and Sweets from KCat Yarza

Loot bags with both kind donations and things bought from cash donations

To sum up, we gathered Php 26,800 from the following sponsors (in random order):

  • Daven Arcega
  • Marian Encinas
  • Jim Duldulao
  • Catherine Lynn Tolosa
  • Patria Tolosa-Lee
  • Vic Calag
  • Xtian Fernando
  • Ralph Sacdalan
  • Fr. Filemon Dela Cruz
  • Radimir Relator
  • Gian Carlo Trinidad
  • Marissa Volante
  • Judith Clemente
  • Ginn Tolosa
  • Anna Katrina Dayo
  • Kilven John Tolosa
  • Aileen Magparangalan
  • Franco Telado
  • Josefina Prado
  • Jhoanna Anag
  • Bin Edres
  • Cha Roque
  • Orlando Claveria
  • Chris Valencia
  • Joyce Estanislao
  • Elyse Go
  • 3 persons wants to remain Anonymous

Since we got more than our target budget, we decided to donate the extra money to Unicef and World Vision. We split our donations in 2 so one is under my name and the other is under Coe’s name.

We donated Php 12, 100 to UNICEF (P6,050 under Coe’s and P6,050 under yours truly) and Php 3,000 to World Vision (P1,500 under Coe’s and P1,500 under yours truly).

Here’s the reply we got from UNICEF:

We also would like to thank the volunteers and visitors who celebrated with us even on a weekend! Their presence and service was a great help for the success of the event. We really are thankful for  Jhoie, Joey, Jhoanna, Issha, Aileen, Mitch, Apple, Ryan, Marian, Michelle, Kathleen, Elyse, Christian, Therese, Kcat and to our official photographer Nico!
Due to change of schedule, some of our friends didn’t make it. We also extend our gratitude to Faith and Fr. Caloiski who were supposed to be there and had a special part in the programme.

Mother Geese: Jhoanna, (ME), Issha, Jhoie, Therese, Aileen, (COE)

Me with Marian, Michelle and Kathleen

Elyse with Coe

Abalos Siblings

Kath & Coe with KCAT’s Family and Sr. Carmen

Of course, we are forever indebted to these two special men in our lives: Andrew Abalos and Ian Bolong. They were supportive as ever! As Coe said, thank you for being the “best runners”, drivers and personal assistant during the event. We wouldn’t make it without you guys on our side! Mwah Mwah, Tsup Tsup! Hahahaha! ^__^

Special mention to Abalos Family for accommodating us the night before the event. We all had a sumptuous meal c/o the girls in the family.

with my Andrew ^_^

with Coe’s Ian ^_^

I couldn’t think of a better conclusion for this post, instead I got this excerpt from Coe’s entry that says it all:

The success of an endeavor magnifies its greatness by how many lives you’ve affected and how many people you’ve touched. Thank you very much for the support and love… Kathleen and I are deeply loved and blessed.

Until next year… ^____^

Birthday Project 2012: Preparations 
Birthday Project 2012: Event Proper
Birthday Project 2012: Sponsors

You can check Coe‘s blog post: Just Be since she already published her side of the story. ^_^

Birthday Project 2012 Cash Donations In Kind Thank you

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Oct 25

Birthday Project 2012: Preparations

by Kathleen

As a prelude to my Birthday Project 2012 post, I decided to break it down for readability purposes not to mention my chance to stall the next write ups. Hahaha! Kidding aside, here’s the first part of our Birthday Project 2012 write up.

To start off, we’ve started planning mid September 2012 already. I know it’s a bit late for this kind of event we’re eyeing on but still we managed to stay calm and brainstorm what we want to achieve. If you’ve been following my blog, you already know that we had our birthday project in Grace to Be Born shelter last year. This year, we wanted something new and  a bit extravagant so we decided to host a party for less fortunate kids.

Initially, we just wanted to have 30 kids considering the budget we had last year. However, my conscience was pushing me to expand and stretch the number to 50 kids. It was a really difficult to decide especially that it’s our first time to do this. We do attend outreach programs but this is different since we will be the ones planning and executing everything. Nevertheless, we agreed. 50 kids, GO! Hahaha!

I communicated with Sr. Ailyn Cayanan, FMA of Don Bosco School Sta. Mesa to coordinate our plans. Since she said her approval, we started to do “the work”.

First things first… SPONSORS! We definitely need donations in Cash and In Kind so we formulated and discussed how to do about it. Of course our friends and relatives were the first ones in the list. Sharing it with friends of friends would be a bonus. With no time to spare, we started sending emails, posting e-cards, word of mouth, etc. Everything we can think of to extend our network and give them the opportunity to share.

Since then, positive responses and overwhelming generosity were seen considering a short time frame. I would enumerate who took part of our endeavor at the end part of my Birthday Project post. 🙂

Fast forward….

Coe & Kath at National Bookstore doing last minute shopping holding Thank You cards made by Nico Orillano

A day before the event, I decided to take a day’s off and start preparing for stuffs needed for the next day’s event. We bought additional stuff and eco bags for them. We’ve gathered all donations in kind and packed them together for the kid’s loot bags. The food and cart suppliers were also coordinated accordingly to be able to have a smooth sailing event.

Packing Time

It was a really a team effort that we stayed in one house just to prepare for the event. With this, I sincerely thank the Abalos’ family for welcoming us and helped us from the beginning up to the end of our project.

There were challenges encountered during the preparations but thankfully we all surpassed that and was able to execute what we had in mind.

Birthday Project 2012: Preparations 
Birthday Project 2012: Event Proper
Birthday Project 2012: Sponsors

You can check Coe’s blog post: Just Be since she already published her side of the story. ^_^

Birthday Project 2012 Random Thoughts

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Sep 15

Birthday Project 2012

by Kathleen

Last year, I had my first birthday project for the benefit of Grace To Be Born foundation. It was a successful activity led by me and my friends. This project was also made possible by the kind donations of friends and family. And truly, I am very grateful.

This year, as much as I want to start early August to collate funds, I was caught up with life’s activities such as work and other extra curricular activities that made this update later than expected. I was hoping to start it on September 1st but unfortunately, I mistakenly deleted my birthday blog. I was trying to recover and fix everything but unfortunately I can’t deliver it as soon as possible. So, I temporary created a copy of my previous blog for me to be able to move on with this project. When I’m about to publish this post, I tried another tweak and poof! I was able to restore my Birthday blog! Yipee! ^_^

Anyway, I wanted to do something more than I did last year. With all the blessings that the Lord has given me, it’s just right to give back some love. With many charity institutions in the Philippines, listed in WikiPedia and not, I can’t decide what to pick. I narrowed down to somewhere close to my heart. In the end, I choose the Street Kids of DBS. Don Bosco School (DBS) is where I attended school half of my educational years (elementary & high school days) so these sisters are somehow responsible on who I am today.

Early this year, I was invited by DBS to give a talk/speech to the undergrads. That was such an honor for me and made me a little bit guilty not going back as often as I want. Because of this, I promise myself to return and be a blessing to them even in my own little ways. So this idea crossed my mind. I think, it’s time to give back. 🙂

The FMA sisters holds its oratory every Sunday. After the 7am mass, street kids are welcomed inside the campus and weekly catechism is held. Feeding program is also done from time to time but I’m not sure how often. I’ve been part of this Sunday activity when I was in high school. Maybe some of the kids I knew back then hopefully grew smarter and successful with the help of these kind sisters. Since every year, a lot of children are born and seen loitering around the streets, I’m sure I don’t know these kids anymore.

I’m still planning out what to do and when the celebration would be so at this point, there are no specific details yet. Most of them are just estimates. I still need to coordinate with DBS. It will probably held in mid October since I’m sharing this humble activity with a good friend Coe who will be celebrating her birthday on November. 🙂

Basically, our plan is to celebrate our birthday with the kids. It would be a fusion of a slight recollection that we normally do when we were in College and a children’s party. I hope we can pull off this plan of ours. A lot of brainstorming and planning is needed and I am already delayed in my target of starting this project last August 31. 🙂

For now, I need your generosity for our endeavor. Last year’s celebration was a success and everyone was happy. This year, I hope another fun filled day of sharing and joy to these kids will not only be a dream but a reality.

>(^_^)< Donate Now! >(^_^)<

 

To know more about the Salesian Sisters, you can check out this link: FMA Philippines
To know more about Don Bosco School Sta. Mesa, you can check out this link: DBS

Birthday Project 2012 Random Thoughts

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Oct 20

Gift Giving on November

by Kathleen

I apologize for not being true to my word. -_-

As I’ve mentioned before, I should give the proceeds by the first Saturday of October. However, due to some unforeseen circumstances, I wasn’t able to do that.

It’s almost the 3rd week of October and I haven’t visited the shelter yet. Don’t be discouraged, I assure you that I’ll give all your donations to the shelter and won’t compromise any of your kind gestures. It is fortunate that my friend Coe is also interested to join and would like to celebrate her birthday in the foundation. She will be celebrating her birthday on November 3, so most likely we would celebrate it on the first Saturday of November.

Again, thank you very much for your generosity. I will update you from time to time of what’s happening in this project of ours.

God bless your generous hearts. ^_^

Birthday Project 2011 Reports

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