Cebu’s Innocents’ Day Ball makes a comeback

The Bachelors and Femina Club of Cebu is alive, and how! Nearly a century ago, an exclusive club of young, talented and musically inclined ladies was born. The music makers performed at special social events much to the delight of the alta sociedad.

At about this same time, another group of young and promising male senior college students who enjoyed parties and social gatherings bonded together to promote and enhance — believe it or not — their social activities.

In the early 1930s, they merged to form the Bachelors and Femina Club with a packed social calendar of parties and more parties.

However, when World War II broke out, activities ceased. It was reconvened in 1946 with popular man-about-town Domingo Veloso as its president. Soon, they held the first Innocents’ Ball at the larger-than-a-mansion Velez Residence. The following years, the annual grand celebrations were at the prestigious Club Filipino of Cebu.

In 1965, bachelor Teodoro Flores, then chairman of the board of directors, initiated the drafting of the club’s constitution and by-laws, and by 1970, the club attained the status of a civic organization that included among its many social activities outreach programs and medical clinics for the marginalized sector.

The succeeding years saw most officers and members constantly traveling to faraway places, some even for temporary residency. Sadly once again, the club became dormant… but not for very long. Once upon a time, active member Perla Agudo Peterson, on her return to Cebu, together with a good number of former colleagues and associates who had finally returned to the island, still full of spirit and enthusiasm, took it upon themselves to revive the organization

Recently, in keeping with time-honored tradition, the Bachelors and Femina Club of Cebu presented an Innocents’ Day Ball at the Casino Español de Cebu with a rigodon de honor led by figurative mamas socialites Rosebud Sala and Annie Mahrt and the papas Rep. Benhur Salimbangon and Oscar Jereza Jr. Twenty lovely ladies in their beautiful ternos and 20 debonair gentlemen in their barong tagalog completed the lineup.

It was wonderful to relive the grandeur that has become synonymous with the Bachelors and Femina Club. Would it not be simply fabulous if the new generation could pick up the reins and continue the task with commitment and development, not to mention the social activities and traditions that the club has nurtured for many years?