Makati Rotary celebrates 50 golden years of service
“The gala dinner and concert were unbelievable in all their splendor. The Rotary Club of Makati has set a standard that cannot be matched anywhere,” said Dr. Albert Wee, a cardiologist at the renowned Mt. Elizabeth Hospital and a member of the Rotary Club of Singapore, of the 50thanniversary gala dinner and concert staged by the Rotary Club of Makati at the ShangriLa at the Fort Hotel in BGC, Taguig.
His comment sums up the collective assessment of the celebration that capped half a century of selfless service to community and country, in the best tradition of Rotary, an international humanitarian organization of 1.3 million men and women in some 200 countries, known for spearheading the global effort at eradicating polio from the face of the earth.
The program came in two distinct parts: the first, a thankful remembrance and salute to the members who had pushed the club to its position of prominence in Philippine Rotary; the second, a classical Viennese concert that held everyone in rapt attention and reaped bursts of appreciative applause at every musical turn.
The Rotarians and guests came in formal togs — the ladies lovely in long gowns, the men dapper in tuxes and formal barong Tagalog.
The program was set in Shangri-La at the Fort’s ballroom, which was purposely transformed into a concert hall with a European opera-house ambiance, its elegance quietly expressed in the gleaming chandeliers above and richly embroidered carpet below.
The Club’s most significant community service projects, flashed on strategically positioned large screens, gave the guests a sense of the magnitude and depth of its humanitarian work since its birth in 1966. Credit for such success belongs to the presidents who have steered the club, one year at a time, for half a century.
The presidents — all attired in a smart tux and bowtie set off by a blue and gold sash draped across the bodice and held in place by a gold medallion emblazoned with the Club’s 50th-anniversary logo — were accorded due recognition in a solemn processional to the tune of Edgar Elgar’s stirring Pomp and Circumstance march, often played at graduation ceremonies.
The sight of the presidents moving towards their designated places in front of the stage brought a lump in the throat to many in the audience, especially the Rotarians who know Rotary well. Dr. Wee described the procession as “moving” and noted that “they came dressed in splendor and walked proud and upright,” despite the visible effects of the passing years, one in a wheelchair, a number with walking sticks, a couple with Parkinson’s gait.
The founding members — most notably Raul Concepcion, Roger Davis and Fred Nassr — were given a proper salute, while Davis reminisced in a video about the teething challenges of the club on its maiden year and how they were surmounted.
In his keynote speech, “golden” president Eddie Yap shared highlights of the club’s community service-filled history, thanked everyone who played a part in its accomplishments, and conferred a Lifetime Achievement Award on past Rotary International director Rafael “Paing” Hechanova for his body of contributions to the club and to Rotary.
The community service projects, initiated or supported by the club, included the first post office established in the then-budding Makati business district, 15,442,217 books and reading materials distributed to public schools, Rotary International’s global anti-polio campaign, the donation of 168 fishing boats to fishermen in Yolanda-battered Ormoc, and various health, nutrition, water, and sanitation projects.
Two 50th-anniversary milestone projects were given prominence — the National Awards for Community Service, a nationwide recognition program for outstanding community projects, whose 10 winners from the 10 Rotary districts in the country were awarded plaques and cash prizes; and the Air Quality Monitoring System, a project that measures air quality, in real time, in certain critical locations in the metropolis and informs the public 24/7 of air quality readings. The project is the club’s contribution to the campaign against air pollution to safeguard public health and the environment. The audio-visual presentation ended with thought-provoking messages: “Climate change is real,” “Save our specie,” “Save Mother Earth!”
Retired Supreme Court Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban was acknowledged for his staunch support of the air-monitoring project, manifested in a donation he made at the club’s induction ball in July 2015 when the project was first announced.
The formal adjournment of the program by president Eddie Yap signaled the beginning of the second part, the muchawaited “A Vienna Spring Concert,” produced for the occasion by president Yap, featuring the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of its resident conductor, Olivier Ochanine, a cast of classical singers — soprano Rachelle Gerodias-Park, her husband, baritone Beong-In Park, tenor George Yang of McDonald’s fame and up-andcoming coloratura soprano Stephanie Quintin, a trio of ballroom competition dancers led by Elena Yap-Lee, and the ladies and gentlemen of the club in elegant dances: a polonaise, landler to a medley from The Sound of Music and a grand waltz to the music of the Emperor
Waltz by Strauss II . “We were blown away,” said Rotarian guest Keith Harrison.