It was on this year, during the term of Pres. Ford “Ford” Tussing, that the Club launched the National Awards for Community Service (NACS), a national recognition program for outstanding community service projects. The project, a brainchild of Rafael “Paing” Hechanova, was a nationwide search for the best projects undertaken by individuals or groups in villages and towns all over the country, demonstrating the five-year-old club’s advocacy for community development at the grassroots level and its capability to successfully execute a project of a national scope.

It is worthy of note that NACS, though carried out only on certain years, has lasted long enough to be set to motion on the Club’s 50thanniversary year, 2015-2016, and that the person at its helm on this, its latest run, is none other than its brains, Past RI Director Paing Hechanova.

Ford Tussing’s term should also be remembered as the year the Club first embarked on disaster relief operations, an activity that in subsequent years would become a fixed entry in the Club’s annual plan. This initial foray into disaster response was in the form of financial assistance to the Rotary Club of Naga in Camarines Sur and the Rotary Club of Malolos in Bulacan, two areas badly affected by typhoons.

The year also saw improvements made on the park and playground in Guadalupe Viejo, with Pres. Fred donating steel for the construction on the property of a building that became a skills training center.