Fifty4Fifty

Our students have finally graduated high school, the highlight of four years of continued support from the friends of Fifty4Fifty. We wish these newly-graduates all the best for the future.

Fifty4Fifty’s “Picture with Santa” fundraising event returned this year at the UN Women’s Guild Bazaar, after missing last year’s. As in the two other previous events in 2007 and 2008, the booth was well-visited and we managed to raise a substantial amount for the children’s benefit.

Here is a link to the pictures taken during the day. It was held at Vienna’s Austria Center from 10 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. last December 4, 2010.

Many thanks go to Dean Calma, co-organizer and photographer; our two Santas, Kresimir and Giovanni; Santa’s helper and elves, Alessia, Karine, and Iulia; our dear friends, Malou, Awe and Dot Ortega; and our supporters from the UN Women’s Guild, without whom this would not have been possible.

The Photobook for Fifty4Fifty is now officially on sale and while it will probably never make it to the New York Times’ bestselling list, feedback has been positive so far. If you’re in Vienna, the quickest way to get a copy is to contact Dean Calma to reserve one. For everyone else the book can be ordered online through Blurb’s bookstore at the following link: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1549018?ce=blurb_ew&utm_source=widget

Ms. Brenda Blann, a colleague and friend at the IAEA’s Division of Public Information, is officially recorded as the first to buy the soft-bound edition of the printed book. In the photo above, she poses with Dean, Rodolfo and Kresimir, three of the featured photographers in the photobook.

It’s finally out – a photo book collaboration between five photographers for the benefit of the FIfty4Fifty Educational Fund. Check out the preview below and go on and order your copy. Great photographs from some really cool guys and you help out young students in the Philippines at the same time. (This is a repost from Q-bits.net)

Five Go Fifty/Fifty by Dean Calma ~ Nicolas Ledesma, Jr. ~ Kresimir Nikolic ~ Rodolfo Quevenco ~ George Zaldarriaga

We have set up a Facebook Group to make it easy for our fans and followers to keep track with latest developments and to post comments, links, photos, videos and other stuff that one can post on social networking sites.

Admittedly, we’ve done a pretty lousy job of keeping this blog updated, so the Facebook way may be an easier way to keep things going. Recently, we also briefly tried to set up a page on the Ning network, but then they started charging for hosting the site there and, in the end, it was cheaper to renew the Fifty4Fiftyd domain name than pay for even the mini Ning hosting plan.

Here is the link to Fifty4Fifty’s Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=206548352181

There’s a popular saying that “things are always better the second time around”. It certainly applies to the our second Santa’s Corner Fund raising campaign held last Saturday during the United Nations Women’s Guild Bazaar.

For this year’s event, we certainly had double the people coming in, raised double the amount we did last year and had double as much fun doing it.

Many, many thanks again to all those who helped: Dean Calma for the organization and his photographic skills; Giovanni Verlini and Kresimir Nikolic for taking turns as Santa; Karine Langlois for being the prettiest Santa’s helper this side of the ocean; Awe Ortega, Malou Calma, and Baby Quevenco for manning the cash box and the food section; Imed Zabaar for printing the posters; and Calvin, Michelle and volunteers from the Vienna International School for the tactical support (One of them also sat in as Santa at one point).

Here’s a gallery of the photos taken during the event.

Due to popular demand, Fifty4Fifty’s Santa Corner will return to the United Nations Women’s Guild Bazaar taking place at the Austria Centre on December 6, 2008.

This will be a whole-day affair beginning from ten in the morning to 5 o’clock in the afternoon. It is a popular event and well-visited by members of the diplomatic community as well as the local Viennese population.

So come on over have a picture with Santa and for 3 euros you get a photo souvenir on the spot and the good feeling of having helped a poor but deserving student finish high school.

See you there!

(Poster design courtesy of Kresimir Nikolic)

This charity started off with a raffle for an iPod Nano in September 2006. So it seemed fitting – and long overdue – to have another one. This time around, the price was the new, gaming generation iPod Touch with email, web access over wifi. It’s a sleeker, smaller version of the iPhone without the phone.

As before, only 50 tickets were printed and sold to colleagues in the office and close friends and supporters. The raffle was held on 2 October at the the Public Information area in the Austria Center – just because the whole office had moved in there for the week of the General Conference.

And the winner? Tobias Arn, an intern from Germany went home with the coveted price. Other consolation winners included Kirstie Hansen, a framed black and white print; Jane and Efren Abaya, a champagne bottle; Marc Vidricaire and Ma Siin, Vietnamese etchings; and Dean Calma, Nikolic Kresimir, Awe and Datdat Ortega, Patricia de Leon, native necklaces.

Fifty4Fifty would like to give special mention to Efren and Jane Abaya, who bought the most raffle tickets and also Sasha Henriques, Horace Agbogbe, Dana Sacchetti and Peter Rickwood, who did not get raffle tickets but donated anyway.

Last July, the thirty young students who call themselves the Fifty4Fifty scholars gathered at our home in Silay to show their appreciation through a song. These young boys and girls exhibited a new-found confidence and self-esteem. They have formed themselves into a group and regularly participate in school and extra-curricular activities. At least, two of the boys have shown some musical talent – one plays the keyboard and another is a member of a local rondalla.