April 30, 2009
By Kim Zarzour, Georgina Advocate
The presentation of a cheque for $37,000 may have caught the adults' attention, but it was the distribution of free basketballs that caught the eye of Vaughan's Filipino youth at the April 18 annual Spring Dinner and Dance.
The cheque - a grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation - was presented to the Filipino Canadian Association of Vaughan.
The basketballs were presented to any child in the room eager enough to nab one, and were the highlight of an evening of celebrations for this growing community that straddles the Thornhill-Vaughan border.
Peter Shurman, MPP for Thornhill, joined the Trillium foundation's grant review team chairperson Loreta Pavese and local dignitaries in presenting the gift and took part in the colourful festivities.
The grant from the Trillium foundation - a provincial organization that supports community-based initiatives - will be used to hire a part-time coordinator to oversee operations and outreach and part-time basketball coaches to expand programming for youth.
The volunteer-led group was started in 1990 to promote community spirit among Filipino-Canadians, celebrate Filipino culture and foster newcomers' participation in York Region community life.
It offers cultural events along with weekly basketball programs, ballroom and line dancing, martial arts, folk dance and heritage classes, caregiver seminars and language translation.
The evening also saw the crowing of this year's "Little Prince" and "Little Princess". The contest, which involves children as young as three-and-a-half years, is a fundraiser to help build a multi-service community centre for Filipino-Canadians.
Erlinda Insigne, the group's president, said last year's Little Prince/Princess fundraiser earned $20,000 towards the $200,000 goal to create a home for the association's activities.
Ms Insigne estimates more than 4,000 Filipino-Canadians live in the Vaughan, Concord and Thornhill area.
The association was instrumental in the twinning of Vaughan with Baguio City in the Philippines in 1997.
For more information, visit www.fcav.ca