Volunteers can move mountains by their shared talents and time; furthermore, the goals set by the NGOs and charitable agencies are properly met on time with less financial constraints, thanks to the countless volunteers.
And lately, the volunteers of the Manitoba Council of Canadian Filipino Associations (MaCCFA) and the Filipino Canadian Technical Professional Association of Manitoba (FCTPAM) received recognition in the presence of Honorable Shelly Glover, minister of heritage and official languages, an MP for St. Boniface; Lawrence Toet, member of Parliament, Transcona-Elmwood; and Tami Kjerulf, of Manitoba Hydro and a Red Cross volunteer. Rod E. Cantiveros, president and Julie Javier, vice-president, MaCCFA and Chris Santos, president, FACTPAM helped handed the certificate of appreciation to more than 50 volunteers who manned the booths at Polo Park, Kildonan Place, Lucky Supermarket and who helped solicit donations from some families and offices.
“The generosity of Manitobans from all communities and cultures has been evident throughout the typhoon relief effort,” said Minister Glover as she dropped by to greet and congratulate volunteers as they received certificates of appreciation from the Manitoba Council of Canadian Filipino Associations and the Filipino Canadian Technical Professional Association of Manitoba. “I am so moved by the tremendous dedication of volunteers who have donated their time and effort and would like to congratulate everyone who helped raise more than $25,000 for typhoon victims in the Philippines.”
“Now I feel as if I were a member of this great Filipino family and I love to be one,” said MP Lawrence Toet with a smile.” I am humbled by the commitments and dedication of the Filipino volunteers. For the past many weeks, I have had attended many fundraising events and I am amazed the passion to help the typhoon victims. And I am honored to represent our Prime Minister Stephen Harper to the various fund raising initiatives. Our government has donated $20 million dollars and added to this amount will be the amount of dollars from the matching formula, dollar for dollar.”
As announced by Tami Kjerulf of Red Cross that the Red Cross has received $29 million from the donors as of last week. With the dollar for dollar matching, the Harper government has donated $49,000 and still counting.
Tami Kjerulf, Red Cross volunteer, and manager, corporate planning and development division, Manitoba Hydro, commemded the works of the volunteers of MaCCFA and FCTPAM for raising the more than $25,000 for the typhoon victims.
Photos by Norman Padilla
