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As
you all know, we just had our first PNA-OR/WA retreat on Nov. 8 & 9. We would like to thank Maria and Rem Susi for their
warm hospitality and generosity in sharing their vacation home at Ocean Park, WA with us.
We would like to thank Maria's mother for preparing & cooking special Filipino paksiw & adobo and Maria
for cooking the arroz caldo & mongo. I also would like to thank Mabelle & Mack for bringing pansit, Madonna &
James for chicken curry, & Nida for the biko, plus their monetary contribution that amounted to $120 for our association's
fund.
Altogether,
there were 9 participants, including our husbands (auxiliary members-strong & dedicated supporters) namely Aces,
myself & Tom, Mabelle & Mack, Madonna & James, Nida, and Fred. I would like everyone to know that I am
so greatful for all your participation during the entire time, as it will never be fun and productive without your
strong presence and willingness to participate.
Since
most of the attendees arrived on Saturday afternoon due to work and family schedules, we started our retreat on
Saturday, after dinner with a reflection about Rose. The message was " it is never too late to be all you can possibly
be, that growing older is mandatory & growing up is optional. We make a living by what we get & we make a life by
what we give.If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it. Good friends are like stars....., you don't always see
them, but you know they are always there."
A special occasion was also celebrated for Mabelle & Mack's Wedding Anniversary. Congratulations
to both of you!
Then,
we shared some of our funny jokes to break the ice, before planning for the year 2009 goals, innovative ideas to meet those
goals, and the 2009 meeting schedule. Our biggest challenge is how to increase our membership. One suggestion was each member
will recruit one person, and if you recruit more than one person, you will receive a discount on your membership
fee. We also discussed the Gawad Kalinga (GK) Project and the Adopt-A-College Project of the PNAA.
We plan
to participate on both projects by partnering with PNACO (Colorado) on the Gawad Kalinga project. GK is
about building homes for the homeless in the Phil. Each house costs $2300. We are thinking of raising funds and share
one half of $2300 with PNACO over a period of 3 years=($ 383/year over 3 years). The Adopt-A-College project, is
about sending nursing books, journals, etc. to the nursing school of our choice to help out, which Fred is already doing
on his own. So, if you have educational materials, please save them for our schools back in the Phil.
Most
of us wanted to go on a cruise as a group. We will plan and will keep you informed. In the meantime, give us input/suggestions
on when and where you would like to go and we will try to schedule to accomodate most of the willing vacationers.
For
fundraising, we plan to have 2 bowlings & one dinner dance per year. Fred is participating as volunteer in the
2012 Olympics in London, and if you plan to volunteer, please
apply now.
Another
topic that we talked about was the opportunity to volunteer with another non-profit
organization
in Seattle that go to the Phil. doing Vision Mission
2x/year. I would like us to work with them providing only manpower, but not monetary funds.
Sunday
morning was a misty, leisurely walk along the beach. It was fun being able to have a little exercise and we had pictures taken
with the PNA-OR/WA written on the sand. Nida & Fred came by the time we were back from our walk along the beach and then
we had breakfast.
We
continued answering our Getting-To-Know questions from the previous night that was full of personal sharing of information
such as likes and dislikes, past experiences (memorable, embarrassing, challenging, influential), accomplishments, etc.
Our
retreat ended at 5 PM with a late lunch. As commented by most attendees, we were having so much fun that time was too
short to do everything as planned (karaoke/dance exercises and shopping, etc.).
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