Inner Wheel celebrates golden year of service
Hardworking ladies of Inner Wheel Club of the Philippines Inc. in the nine districts throughout the country are taking time off today and tomorrow to celebrate 50 golden years of service to the marginalized sectors of society with songs, dances and of course costumes galore.
2 fun-filled nights
The IWCPI has packed the nights with fun-filled activities like a dinner with special entertainment numbers from balladeer Marco Sison, the Dream Girls and Music Power Trio. The first night’s theme is Sister Club Glittering Night.
The second night is a musical extravaganza with a special fullcostume (contest) presentation of the districts in their chosen Broadway musical themes like
Mary Poppins, the King and I, Hello Dolly, CATS Grease, Lion King, Camelot and Flower Drum Song. These presentations are expected to bring out the best talent among the members and creativity in costume designs.
International Inner Wheel president Charlotte De Vos of Belgium will give the keynote speech. De Vos expressed keen interest in meeting the officials and to visit the projects of the districts, which impressed her as diverse and impact-filled, said outgoing IWCPI national president Cecil Sy-Ferrer.
This year’s national conference, chaired by Sofia Lee, has for its theme “Unique and United in Service and Friendship.”
50 years and 9 districts
For 50 years now, the IWCPI has been holding an annual conference that gathers leaders and members from the nine districts of Inner Wheels in the country – from Isabela in Luzon down to Mindanao. The Philippine chapter itself has surpassed six decades of friendship and service to the marginalized sectors of society.
To be held at the Manila Hotel, this conference would see colorful Filipiniana dresses and barongs to be donned by IWCPI national and district leaderships and by IIW president De Vos.
IWCPI opened up to nonwives of Rotarians, and now to youths 21 years old and below.
National projects
IWCPI’s national directed projects are Operation Lingap (relief during calamities and post calamities, the distribution of fishing boats to affected fishing communities); Tubig sa Barangay (undertaken in the remotest areas of the country where no water system operates); day care centers; Operation Karunungan (a nonformal intervention giving books and other learning aids to schoolchildren and out of school youths); a program for the aging and elderly in one pavilion in the Mental Hospital whose families have permanently abandoned them; clean and green ( replanting and beautification); livelihood ( uniform- making for public schools, baking and bag making from recycled newspapers) and eco-social projects.
Add to this the national scholarship for deserving public school students to be picked by each of the nine districts. Called Ako’y Pilipino, the top placer gets a four- year partial scholarship of P100,000; P40,000 for the second placer and P20,000 for the third.
Keynoting the first day is Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada and on the second day is Mary Jane Ortega who will discuss the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals in the light of climate change.