Hello everyone! Hope you all have a pleasant start of the year.  The winter season seems so long and we know that everything will come to an end so does winter season.  WMFAA started the year right by having potluck Valentines Party on February 14, 2009 to melt away the holiday and winter blues. Everyone who attended this event had a good time as shown on the photos in our “Members Photos – 2009 Valentines Party.

WMFAA kick off the 2nd Beauty for a Cause contest and the coronation night was done on April 25, 2009.  The proceeds of this fundraising project are set aside for the “Bereavement Fund” benefitting our members who lost their loved ones. You may not know, every members of this association received some financial help when they lost their beloved parents and their children under 18 years of age  or up to 25 years old

as long as the child(ren) are enrolled in an educational institution. This benefit goes the same for the spouses of each member family. Some of the funds are also used for promoting the visibility of WMFAA in our community.

We have joined Holland Tulip Time Festival and the Fruitport Old Fashioned Day parades this year.  Riding the float were the Beauty for A Cause participants, the WMFAA Beat Dancers and some of our volunteers who worked on the float.  On both occasions we received a lot of cheers, applauses and “Mabuhay” from the crowd of spectators.  As a matter of fact in Fruitport event, our state representative (Ms. Valentine) joined and posed for a photo with our group.

WMFAA also hosted a potluck/reception for Governor Miguel Dominguez of Sarangani, Philippines who was on his official visit to the U.S.  The governor was greeted by some of the WMFAA Administration and members who attended this gathering and was showcased with Filipino foods brought in and two (2) of our Philippines folk dances (Itik-Itik and Sayaw sa Bangko).  He was also conferred with an “Honorary Membership” to our association. The plaque has the WMFAA logo with the names of the Board of Officers and Board of Directors. 

WMFAA was also invited in Zeeland High School for their Lunch & Learn Diversity Day.  We had a Power Point presentation about the Philippines; our cultures, our customs and beliefs and a live presentation of Philippines dresses and folk dances. Some students in the class tried out to learn some steps on the Sayaw sa Bangko with the cheering and applauses of their fellow students.  This was a very pleasant experience for both of us, the Zeeland High School students and the WMFAA volunteers.

There are a lot more activities plan for 2009 and they are all listed in our Event/Activities section of our website.  Please check it out.  You can pick and choose what events you want to participate and join in some of them or join them all; the more the merrier.

WMFAA strived to give its members a good experience while we co-exist and due to these we need to make some changes. Changes are good, we should not be afraid of changes.  We should take it as part of “growing up” and part of our life’s learning curve. There are a lot of changes made to our website.  Starting 2009, all photos of our events and gatherings will be in a “Movie” format.  This way, the photos are viewed in big sizes and come with music background.  Hope you like them.  After we finished updating 2009 photos, we will start updating the 2008 events’ photos also.

Just a reminder, this year is an election year.  Please choose your candidates who are best suited to do the job. Your  number one criteria in choosing the person you are going to vote should be the person’s “purity of intent”, the next criteria are “if he/she can do the job and his/her willingness to do the job.”

From the WMFAA administration, we thank you all; our donors, supporters, volunteers and all the members in helping us to carry out the job associated with our positions.

Again, thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to serve you as your President of this organization, WMFAA.  May GOD bless us all.  See you soon in our forthcoming events. 

Cynthia Sasota-Wright