General
Scout Alumni Reunion
Hi to everybody!!!
Let me tell you stories
about the celebration of the 79th birthday of Sir Rudy which by the way
became a general scout alumni reunion. The event was held last Saturday,
16 November 2002.
We arrived at Sir
Rudy’s place in Col Salgado St, Kamias, Quezon City at about 3:30 in the
afternoon. Nato Barredo came to my house early that day, about lunchtime
and we talked a bit about Sir Rudy before we proceeded to Sir Rudy’s place.
Upon arrival at the place, there was already Jenny Isidro preparing the
tables for her give-away items, registration forms as well as for the dinner
plates and other utensils she brought for the affair. Earlier that
afternoon, the lechon from Paring Erick was delivered and was ready for
the ceremonial cutting.
Few days before,
Evelyn Alcaraz already made coordination with the barangay officials to
provide parking spaces along the Col Salgado Street. Barangay Tanods were
deployed in the area as early as 1 pm to manage the traffic flow as the
street is only a two-lane street. Ala eh, napakaayos ng flow of traffic
that afternoon. Thanks a lot, Ms Evelyn…
About six Boy Scouts
from Trinity College who were in their Type A uniform served as ushers
for the affair.
Some foods were already
on the buffet table as other foods keep on coming in as guests continued
to arrive.
The staff of ABS-CBN
news department (Channel 2) arrived at about 4:30pm and took some video
shots of the affair. Sir Rudy and other scout alumni were interviewed
which shall be featured in a local TV program sometime this week.
We sang scout songs, practiced some yells, clapped different types.
In short, balik uli kami sa dati nating mga gawain sa scouting; kantahan,
sigawan, sayawan na parang mga bata. Kaya lang, hindi na rin naming
gaanong masundan. Iba na ang mga kanta nila. That only shows na MATANDA
na tayo.
GMA TV 7 was also
invited but due to late invitation, they were not able to come. If
you would ask why are these two TV networks interested in this affair?,
It is because, both of them already featured Sir Rudy in their different
TV programs about four years ago as the “Oldest Scoutmaster” alive.
After the interview,
nag-umpisa nang magkainan. At about 5pm, kaunti pa rin ang mga tao.
Some who confirmed to arrive early were still not yet present while others
really did not show up. About 530pm, still, wala pa ring taong nadadagdag,
kami-kami pa rin plus some Trinity Scout Alumni. I approached Sir Rudy
about 6pm to tell him that we shall start the program. He asked me
to wait for another hour ‘coz aside from the heavy traffic condition that
afternoon, he told me that most of the guests have confirmed to arrive
between 6 and 7 pm, which I did not expect. So, we waited.
And that’s true. Guests really came in one by one and we finally
started the very informal program with a prayer at 7pm led by Don Villareiz,
a Trinity Scout alumni, who is now a pastor.
Nato Barredo hosted
the program. Some alumni took the chance to share their experiences
with Sir Rudy and showed their intension to be in one with us to help Sir
Rudy. Alumni who rendered short speeches were Naz Gutierrez, Noel Maninang,
Jimmy Roque, Bemeer Barredo, Edmund Liao, Dr Toti Rivera, Pablo Olmedo
and Elmer Alindogan. The last three were from Almeda School, Batch ‘65-‘69.
Ernie Fojas also committed his support to Sir Rudy. Nakakatuwa itong
si Ernie Fojas who is now a police colonel at Western Police District (WPD).
Though, he could hardly walk due to a stroke he suffered a few months ago,
he really tried to be present in the affair. He didn’t eat.
After giving a short talk, he left right away to be with his son who was
also celebrating his birthday. Mon Salas and Jollo Semilla were also present.
Jenny Isidro was called
by Sir Rudy to talk a bit but since Jenny was so emotional, her talk didn’t
last even for a minute.
Ompong Nacianceno
called thru my cellphone that night and I was able to let him speak with
Sir Rudy.
For Ompong: As you
have asked, I will be sending you the list of medicines which Sir Rudy
is taking. Please expect another e-mail from me within this week.
I was with my wife
Ruby and son Ralph in that affair.
In between talks, may
mga ice breakers. We were surprised to see Sir Rudy leading us sa
mga ice breakers. He was so energetic that night. I told the body
that a week ago, the old man was so sick that he could not even get up
from his bed. He was having a sensation of spinning around and losing his
balance and was vomiting a lot. But that night, he was so excited and full
of energy. Grabe si LOLO…
In my talk, I was
so delighted by the positive response of all the alumni present that night
to help Sir Rudy unconditionally. They committed their support and
they also promised to contact other scout alumni. I told the body,
that we have likewise other Scout Alumni abroad who are willing to be in
one with us in this project. Sir Rudy was so happy that night. Even
some of us could really not express the happiness we felt as we see the
outpouring show of support for our scoutmaster.
We also have a re-awarding
ceremony for Sir Rudy. Five of his trophies including a plaque (Golden
Tamaraw Award) were re-awarded to him. He thanked the scouts for
those awards he received many years ago.
Just yesterday, I happened
to talk with some Trinity Alumni who were not present last Saturday and
promised to join us in our project to help Sir Rudy. I will be meeting
with them sometime next week to discuss the incorporation procedure for
this project. It is good that a lawyer alumni from Trinity is offering
his services for the incorporation. I will be giving you updates
regarding this matter soonest.
To cheer you up a
bit, I have prepared a comical powerpoint presentation of the affair but
I guess it will take us a long uploading/downloading time when I transmit
it thru e-mail. I will just try to send the pictures in batches as
what I did last time.
So, this is it, with
the support of all scouts (from Torres, Trinity, Calderon, FEU, and
Almeda) and other people/student alumni who in one way or another would
like to look back and give unconditional assistance to our LOLO Sir Rudy
Gutierrez, we will continue and try to give the old scoutmaster a
better life condition for the rest of his life.
May I also request
each of you to please help me locate other scouts who knew Sir Rudy and
please let me know of their e-mail addresses if possible.
Thanks a lot for
your support.
GOD Bless us all…
ronnel
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