Barangay Umapad in Mandaue City was caught on fire last May. They were even placed under calamity status by the City Council. Around 656 families were displaced by the fire.

Just today, the Cebu Bloggers Society went to Umapad to share their blessings to the unfortunate. We did not aim to give a lot of bundles to the families. Since most of us are students, we just shared what we can.

Our assembly area is Jollibee in Mandaue City where all of us were fetched by Guada and Tiborsho’s ride. Expectedly, we had a joy ride!

And yes we are so proud :kiss: of our Ako Mismo dog tags.

Upon reaching Umapad, we stayed in the Barangay Hall while the rest of us bought the goods to be given to the fire victims. When the goods arrived, we packed them ourselves into individual bundles.

Packing the clothes, noodles, rice and sardines. Team work!

The bundles are set to be distributed to the families.

We then divided ourselves into two so we could cover many families in the shortest time possible to avoid the looming rain. We then walked towards the fire-stricken area. We started looking for households to receive our goods.

The first household we interviewed. With two kids and a baby, living under a plastic tent is very hard especially with the hard weather.

Barangay Umapad

We continued to distribute all our bundles of joy until the heavy rain came. Fortunately, we were almost done when the rain came. That ended our fast but heartfelt help to the fire victims.

It feels good to help especially to those who are less unfortunate. I call myself lucky because I get to live in a house, eat three meals a day, buy clothes, go to school and many more. There are millions out there who are not blessed with even the small things we have. It wouldn’t hurt us to extend our blessings to those who need it. It would even help us become more humane than what we are now.

I am glad CBS thought of this activity especially through the leadership of Guada. Helping others is actually fun when you do it sincerely and willingly. Thank you to the CBS members who came to this charitable event. To Guada, Tiborsho, Markoy, Mikyu, Kai, Tianex, Pibi, Agnes, Zyra, Blair, Aika, Louella, Ken, Prince and Honey, kudos to the successful event! :up:

To those who are interested to help, you could always approach the Barangay Captain. Your help would be highly appreciated.

Because we were so happy of the outcome of our outreach event, we went immediately to SM to have our dinner in Bigby’s using our gift certificates we received on a past event. Unfortunately, here’s what happened:

Along the way the heavy rain poured in and since we are on a pick-up type of vehicle, we got soaked in the rain. We entered SM like we’ve undergone a terrible storm.

To avoid pulmonary diseases to strike us, we bought shirts in that very instant. After buying and changing on our new shirts, we went to Bigby’s to have our dinner.

Kai, still the same shirt. Mikyu and I bought new shirts. :vangry:

While waiting for our orders, Aethen, a Manila blogger came by to say hi to the Cebu Bloggers Society members. He was with Heno Chin, a schoolmate of mine in UP. CBS welcomed him of course, happily. After our meal, a lot of laughs, silent eating moments, the fake birthday celebration for Markoy, and with Vernon, OMG and Atty. Ouano coming, we all went out to have the final stroll before summer officially ends.

Cebu Bloggers Society family.

Looking at the mini SM.

I will definitely start missing my CBS family now that the classes are here (though I don’t have classes yet tomorrow). Maybe the least we could do is meet once a week. Or I don’t know. When things get busier, once a month? CBS is what’s making my life enjoyable. Me love CBS! :kiss:

That is all for now. This is my last post for my summer 2009. A Sunday of charity work and CBS bonding is one hell of a good summer ender.

What made my summer complete is not the sun, the beach or the rain. It’s the people I’ve met and bonded with – CBS and Manila bloggers. Farewell summer!

Photos from Mikyu.