Falling snow & moonlight

Manila’s favorite caterer Gaita Fores came up with an appropriately Christkindlmarkt menu that started with chestnut and foie gras soup and ended with Austrian apple strudel and German dark stout beer ice cream. In between were sea bass, river prawns and scallops in a lovely paper box and the tenderest Angus tenderloin with portobello quenelles. That sumptuous dinner made it really difficult to raid the dessert booth, which had chocolates, yule logs, fruit cake, and gingerbread cookies. And how can the meal not be perfect when you end it with Moet Chandon champagne?

After dinner entertainment featured the UST Choir and UST College of Music dean Raul Sunico on the piano, and Miss Saigon’s Engineer Leo Valdez doing what he does best–Broadway. A special treat was a Leo Valdez-Raul Sunico duet to cap the evening.

The dinner though was not just about snow in Makati and a European Christmas; it was a fundraiser for the USEC’s programs. Partnering with Smart Infinity (which will sponsor in January the Manila concert of Il Divo, the hottest–in more ways than one!– classic-pop group around) and San Miguel (beer still won out as the favorite over glühwein, a mulled wine) and other generous donors, the affair raised well over a million pesos.

Aside from sponsorships and ticket sales, a silent auction was held with some pretty sumptuous prizes. Five color-coded mystery auction boxes yielded great vacation packages for the "fittest" who survived the "bidding wars" – embassy economic officer and USEC 2007 president Caron de Mars won both the Nami Resort, Boracay and The Farm at San Benito packages; David Nugent of Smart/PLDT will go where the ASEAN leaders’ did not:to the Shangri-La Mactan Resort; Vince and Leigh Perez of El Nido Resort in Palawan are heading for Fridays in Boracay as Paul and Catherine Jones head for Lagen Island Resort in El Nido next spring. A "perfect escape" was made by Teresa Hartsaw whose last minute six-figure bid got her the Amanpulo Palawan package.

Also up for silent bidding were a Jewelmer golden pearl, a Hans Brumann jeweled butterfly and a Laura de Guzman bracelet. It was hard for the guests not to place bids, for how can one say no to two statuesque models (in Nono Palmos piña silk pastel-colored dresses) and lovely 11-year-old Allie Jones gong around with the bid forms.

The U.S. Embassy Club (USEC) is a community service organization composed exclusively of members of the American Embassy community. It began in 1963 as the Embassy Women’s Club, a social gathering for embassy spouses that held fashion shows and an annual Christmas ball. Its charitable projects started in 1966 with a scholarship program set up to provide college education for children of the embassy’s Filipino employees. The ladies held a Shoppers’ Day bazaar in the embassy’s chancery with 15 vendors and raised P10,000 for 20 scholarships.

Both the Shoppers’ Day bazaar and the scholarship program continue to this day, albeit on a much larger scale. The last bazaar, held in October, featured some 250 vendors and raised over P1.2 million. The scholarship program now supports 60 students, each of whom receive P7,500 per semester. In addition, each scholar has a USEC volunteer "mentor" who monitors and encourages the student’s academic progress.

In 1993 the club was officially re-named the U.S. Embassy Club, and its focus shifted to community service and outreach programs. Now with 162 members and a six-member board, the USEC’s mission is "to make a positive difference in the Philippines through volunteerism and financial assistance to charitable and developmental efforts."

The club’s budget has increased to over P2 million annually, which entirely goes to support its charities (since it is purely a volunteer organization, "the club has virtually no overhead," Catherine reveals). In light of the large-scale destruction wrought by typhoon Reming, part of the funds raised at the charity dinner (P100,000 to be exact, through Charity First) will go to setting up water purification system there.

From this fundraiser, USEC will in 2007 offer two additional scholarships for children of embassy employees; purchase five walkers and other supplies for children with cerebral palsy at the Trichet Learning Center; purchase books and supplies for a newly opened library at Friendship Home in Malate; fund 20 additional cleft palate surgeries with Project Smile; buy new toys for pre-school children at the Little Sisters of the Assumption in Pasay; furnish the Little Children’s Home in Rizal with ten new cribs and new outdoor play equipment; increase the number of poor children toserved at the regular feeding program of Reach Youth at the Makati railroad tracks; and add a small grant to a Peace Corps project to revive the pottery industry in Barangay Cagbang, Miag-ao, Iloilo.

While providing funds and other material support is an important part of the club’s work, even more important is the personal involvement of USEC members, who make regular visits to the different institutions and do hands-on work, taking the children to parks and carnivals, to the beach and to performances, teaching them to sing and telling them stories, or simply holding and cuddling children and playing with them.

This personal connection may be the club’s most important work–for both volunteer and beneficiary. While the children and those running the organizations greatly value both the material and personal support extended by USEC, the club members discover and experience a rare upliftment that is at the heart of the club’s having continued for 40 years.

Underlining the importance of this personal involvement, USEC president Christiane Armstrong says, "To go and hand out money to poor people is one thing, but to go and be with them, to talk and spend time together is a sign of respect and acceptance. That’s what I really support. It is my goal to instill a feeling of pride and self-confidence in the underprivileged people I work with, especially the children."

While officials on both sides hail the "special relations" between the Philippines and the United States, there are always issues to deal with: the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the joint military exercises, custody of a U.S. marine convicted of rape, the fight against terrorism, and, for the man in the street, the usual tricky visa issue. But however smooth or bumpy the official road may be, it was a very pleasant surprise to discover this other face of RP-US relations.