Ruben Valerio is an old-timer in the Club, having joined in 1974, a good 42 years ago. He has many fond memories of those good old days, especially of basketball games played against other clubs, the fun they had at practice, and the competitive spirit that pushed them to win. They had every right to feel confident. After all, they had an ace no other team had: a certified Olympian in the person of Paing Hechanova.
In the 1980s and 1990s, he lay low from Rotary to devote full time to growing his business and setting it on solid footing. In 2011, though, he was tapped to lead the Club as president, a job that had not figured in his life plans. He knew the kind of commitment it would require of him, and he was not ready to take it on. He would have said No, period, except that the request came from someone he couldn’t say No to: his basketball buddy of the 1970s who had so grown in stature in the Rotary world that it was simply unthinkable to turn him down. So the No melted into a Yes.
In July 2012, Ruben Valerio took his oath as president of RC Makati on its 47th year. And Paing, by then a past director of Rotary International, was pleased.
The induction ball that year was grand as all such club events are, but it was different in that it had the distinctive touch of Ann Mimi Valerio — a stunning show of the best of Philippine dances performed by the renowned Bayanihan Dance Company that wowed the foreigners among the guests and culminated in a fashion show of Philippine dress, from the kimono to the Maria Clara, by the ladies of the Club.
That fashion show, it turned out, was simply a foretaste of things to come. In September 2012, the Club staged another such show at the ballroom of the Mandarin Hotel. Billed as “One Big Family Cultural Show,” it featured a parade of the national dresses of various nations modeled by male and female Rotarians from many clubs and friends of Rotary from various organizations. The event, a fundraiser, was a huge success that added the tidy sum of P1M-plus in net income to the club coffers. To this was added a cool P1.25M generated by the 24th run of the Christmas Bazaar at the Intercon Hotel in November 2012.
With funds secured, the Club carried on with projects in the different areas of service.
In Education, the Club saw the inauguration of a vocational training facility for baking and laundry at the Stepping Stone Learning Center. The training center was funded by a matching grant of $100,000 applied for and received by the Club from The Rotary Foundation.
The year saw the completion of the Concentrated Language Encounter (CLE) under which pupils in 28 public schools in Makati took classes aimed at sharpening their communication skills. Long-running projects were carried on: career guidance talks for the graduating class of the Hen. Pio del Pilar National High School; half scholarships to six needy students of the Philippine Institute for the Deaf; and over 200,000 books distributed to 475 schools under the 24-year-old Books Across the Seas Project.
The year saw the completion of the Concentrated Language Encounter (CLE) under which pupils in 28 public schools in Makati took classes aimed at sharpening their communication skills. Long-running projects were carried on: career guidance talks for the graduating class of the Hen. Pio del Pilar National High School; half scholarships to six needy students of the Philippine Institute for the Deaf; and over 200,000 books distributed to 475 schools under the 24-year-old Books Across the Seas Project.
The Makati Social Welfare Department, the Club’s partner in the Bantay Bata Project, conducted seminars and lectures for parents, social workers, and volunteer barangay workers on such topics as children’s rights, responsible parenting and the care of children, and workshops on developing life skills. A spiritual recollection was held for children with behavioral problems rooted in family issues and/or emotional trauma from physical, mental or sexual abuse.
The Club also made a donation to Rotary Homes for two housing units in the resettlement site in Parañaque, new home to families that used to live along the banks of the Parañaque River, and pushed the environment protection goal by taking part in a tree-planting activity along C-5 Road.
The Youth program was advanced by the two RC Makati-sponsored youth organizations — Interact Club at Hen. Pio del Pilar National High School for whose seniors the Club conducted career guidance sessions and whose members participated in the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA), District Rotaract-Interact Assembly (DRIA) and the District Youth Olympics; and the Rotaract Club of Makati (RAC Makati) which participated in the RYLA, DRIA and the Pilipinas Rotaract Convention. RAC Makati was adjudged Most Outstanding Rotaract Club in the district awards program at yearend.
The Club reinforced its international service agenda with the forging of new sister club relations with two clubs, RC Greater Kuala Lumpur in District 3300-Malaysia and RC Il Bong in District 3620-Korea, and the renewal of ties with four, RC Kota KinabaluMalaysia, RC Fukui Ajisai-Japan, RC Bukit Bintang-Malaysia, and RC Sydney-Australia. The Club also went on visits to three sister clubs — RC Hou Kuong in Macau, RC Taoyuan in Taiwan, and RC Tongkah in Phuket, Thailand. The local side of international service was served with the renewal of brother club relations with RC Vigan, RC Dagupan, RC Baguio North, RC Bay, RC Midtown Tarlac, RC Balintawak, and RC Boracay.
The Club boosted its roster of Paul Harris Fellows with 18 pledges by as many members, and solidified its stock as a staunch TRF supporter by co-hosting the TRF Testimonial Dinner that recognizes the year’s contributors to The Rotary Foundation. Among those honored were PRID Paing & Mely Hechanova and PDG Robert & Yvonne Kuan, who are members of the Arch Klumph Society of major donors with cumulative gifts of at least $250,000.
When the southwest monsoon dumped rains on the Metro Manila and neighboring provinces in August 2012, the Club played the lead in mobilizing several Rotary Clubs for massive relief operations that brought much-needed aid — in the form of food, bottled water, medicine, clothes, and personal hygiene items — to some 2,500 families in seven communities. It also donated P500,000 to a brother club, RC Davao, to bolster a disaster relief campaign for thousands who had been rendered homeless and hungry by Super Typhoon Pablo (Bopha) in early December.
That year ended on a happy note for over 500 children in select communities and institutional homes to whom the Anns delivered Christmas presents under the Last Angel gift-giving program.