1181 Filipino-US Alumni reunion
austraLasia 1181

Filipino-US Alumni reunion
(sourced from Boscolink)

BENICIA (Cal): 1 July 2005  --  Don Bosco teachers and alumni from the Philippines who now reside in California are sponsoring a reunion in the San Francisco Bay Area over this Independence Day Weekend. The two-day celebration, entitled SALAMISM 2005, features a Dinner Dance on Saturday, 2 July, at Salesian High School (Richmond), and a day-long picnic on Sunday, 3 July, at Frontierland Park (Pacifica).
    Opening the events are the celebration of Mass on 2 July at the Salesian Community Chapel, at 4:30. Fr Larry Tan SDB, visiting from Manila, is preaching; Fr Joe Boenzi SDB, delegate for the Salesian Family in California, is presiding at the concelebration.  The Dinner Dance begins at 6:30. Guest speaker for the evening is Fr Nicholas Reina SDB, president and director of Salesian High School (Richmond). The family-style picnic at Frontier Park on Sunday begins at 10:00 am.
    SALAMISM is a biennial reunion of alumni and past teachers from twelve Salesian schools  from different regions of the Philippines who are now living and working in the USA. Each reunion is held in a different North American city, as chosen by the host. This is the seventh reunion.
    Attending SALAMISM 2005 are "Bosconians" (the nickname that Don Bosco Past Pupils from the Philippines have earned) from Florida, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Washington, Nevada, and from California "Bosconian" groups in San Diego, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. A number of Bosconians are also attending from Canada, Australia and the Philippines.
    "The main purpose of SALAMISM 2005," says organizer Joe Padilla, "is to get old friends and classmates and teachers together. We shared a common spirit as young people and young teachers in the Philippines thanks to Don Bosco. We want to keep that bond alive now, because Don Bosco is alive in us."
    Joe Padilla, who trained as an engineer but whose first job was at Don Bosco Technical College in Mandaluyong (Philippines), acknowledges the support of the Salesians of Don Bosco in the San Francisco Bay Area to the efforts of the Bosconians to keep up their traditions. "Don Bosco is alive here in California too," he says. "This is why another feature of our Reunions is to raise some funds to help poor young people today get an education. We have created a fund that supports the technical education of poor youth in the Philippines, in the Don Bosco Schools. At the same time, we continually put aside moneys to help with the education of young people in the San Francisco Bay Area, for it is here that we now live and work."

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