Santa Claus Visits Provincial Hospital

December 24, 2013/in 2013, Galleries

Santa and his Helper went on the evening of December 23 to the Provincial Hospital in Dumaguete City. Like each year, they had some presents for all Children who were admitted to the Hospital for Christmas. This is the 3rd year the small group organizes the visit. Many helping supporters chimed in and made Christmas for the Children in the hospital a little bit better. The shopping started in October; and once again UniTops offered a 10% discount on all items, which simply means, that the donations go a longer way.

Dumaguete Project santa Thursday Club 2013

Shopping for Santa Claus:

Liza with Rechel Shopping for Project Santa 2013

Four different bags needed to be filled. Each bag had several hygiene items as well as toys and educational stuff.

60 gift bags for babies and newborns

Project-Santa-50-babies-gift-packs

The 60 Christmas Bags for babies and newborn contained: Alcohol, Bath Soap, Face Towel, Comb, Baby Powder, Cotton Buds, Cotton, Coin Box, Manzanilla, baby powder box w/ sponge, Wet Tissue (Baby Wipes), Rattles (noise maker), Feeding Bottles, Baby Socks, Baby Gloves

70 gift bags for children between 2 and 5 years

project-santa-70-unisex-3-6-yr-old-gift-packs

The 70 unisex gift bags contained: Alcohol, Bath Soap, Face Towel, Comb, Baby Powder, Cotton Buds, Cotton, Coin Box, Tooth Brush, Tooth Paste, Book (Reading and Coloring), Crayons, Bubbles, Ballon (pinguin), Spring Rainbow, Hair gel, Yoyo, Spiral Ruler

40 bags for girls 6 to 12 years

Project-Santa-40-Girls-6-12-yr-old-gift-packs

The bags for the girls contained: Bag, Alcohol, Bath Soap, Face Towel, Comb, Baby Powder, Cotton Buds, Cotton, Coin Box, Tooth Brush, Tooth Paste, Book (Reading and Coloring), Crayons, Bubbles, Ballon (pinguin), Spring Rainbow, Hair gel, Yoyo, Cooking Set, Doll

40 gift bags for boys 6 to 12 years

Project-Santa-4-Boys-6-12-yr-old-gift-packs

The boys got: Bag, Alcohol, Bath Soap, Face Towel, Comb, Baby Powder, Cotton Buds, Cotton, Coin Box, Tooth Brush, Tooth Paste, Book (Reading and Coloring), Crayons, Bubbles, Ballon (pinguin), Spring Rainbow, Hair gel, Yo-yo, Ball

The group met at Casablanca Restaurant and headed towards the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital.

Miss Dumaguete Lorrane Kendrickson & Rechel of DINS

All Children received their small presents. The left-over bags were brought to an orphanage.

Project-Santa-the-helpers221

Merry Christmas

The Christmas House of Dr. Absin

December 9, 2013/in 2012, Galleries

Since 25 years Dr Absin’s Christmas House opens the doors for visitors from the City, the Philippines and from all over the world. Everybody is invited to spend some hours at his property, to feel the spirit of Christmas.

Christmas House in Dumaguete

Since years, the Christmas House is a “must” on our schedule. One does never get too old for a visit. The visit is not only about the decorations. Many of the figurines are antiques, which are arranged into beautiful sceneries. Each by itself is admirable.

The Christmas House is located on 143 Hibbard Avenue. In 2013 it is supposed to open on December 14.

Christmas House in Dumaguete Piapi

The following pictures are just a few of the hundreds we took over the last years.

Dr. Absin Christmas House in Dumageuete

(click image to enlarge)

Hope you enjoyed the pictures. If so, leave a comment.

Sandurot 2013 – Streetdance and Showdown

November 25, 2013/in 2013, Galleries

The most colorful event of each year’s Sandurot Festival is the Street-Dance Parade, which peaks in the Street Dance Showdown. The last years, the showdown was held at the quadrangle just in front of the City Hall. This year the organizers moved it to the main stage in Quezon Park. Another change was made with the competing participants. Usually the Barangays were competing at the Sandurot Festival with each other. Sandurot 2013 saw six different schools in the competition.

Sandurot 2013 streetdance

The Sandurot Street-Dance Parade started a little bit too late. When the participants danced along Perdices Street it was already too dark. Without natural daylight, the colorful costumes and their details were barely to see for the thousands of spectators along the route of the Sandurot 2013 Parade. Nevertheless, all participants gave their best. Some costumes and choreographic were simply spectacular.

Sandurot 2013 – Showdown Competition

All seats in front of the big stage were stuffed and thousands were watching the Sandurot 2013 – Street Dance Showdown on the huge screens and the SKY cable live broadcast on TV.

The Stage is ready for Sandurot Showdown Competition 2013

All six contestants were stunning and we were not be able to vote for one in particular. Each group had multiple WOW-moments. The entertainment factor was as high as it can get. Also the intermission numbers before the winner were announced did not fail to make the audience screen and shout. Therefore we simply post a whole lot of pictures below in no particular order. The real winner was once again everybody who had the chance to watch the Sandurot Street Dance 2013 Showdown at Quezon Park.

The Sandurot Showdown 2013 was certainly the highlight of a great Festival full of excellent events. Some of the experiment of the organizers worked out very good, some need a little bit adjustment and better organization. The big stage in Quezon Park was an absolute great invention as a center-piece of the Sandurot Festival 2013 and the Dumaguete City 65^th Charter Day.

Miss Dumaguete 2013

November 23, 2013/in 2013, Galleries

The Miss Dumaguete 2013 Coronation Night took this year place in the Macias Convention Center instead of the Sports Complex. The eight finalists going through stressful weeks full of photo-shootings, interviews, visiting schools, tv- and radio station and charity projects. All that hard work led to the Miss Dumaguete 2013 night, where the candidates showed their best to become the successor of Frances Claire Vintola-Miss, our Dumaguete 2012.

The Convention Center was an adequate environment for the Miss Dumaguete 2013 Coronation Night and filled about half with the who is who in Dumaguete. Exactly at 8:00 pm (Filipino Time), the house-lights went out, to have the next 10 minutes in darkness, making all late visitors “guessing” for their place, as nobody had a torch to show them their seat. For all “normal” Dumaguetenos, who couldn’t afford the 100 PHP – 300 PHP entrance fee, SKY-cable organised a live-broadcast to Rizal Boulevard and Quezon Park, where a good crowd followed the event. Great Service, well done.

Miss Dumaguete 2013 Opening

Here some pictures of the opening ceremony of Miss Dumaguete 2013 Coronation Night (click pictures to enlarge)

Miss Dumaguete Swim Wear

Next was the swim- wear round, which is always the favorite of all real men in the audience.

Following some pictures of VIPs, guests, organizers and acts on stage. All were needed to make the Miss Dumaguete 2013 Coronation Night a great event.

The traditional Filipinana dress was the theme for the gowns. Each candidate was wearing a dress in the color of their birth-stone, at least the audiance was told, until one of the contestants announced that they picked them randomly. Not that it really mattered, as they all looked graceful and simply stunning

Finally the judges made their decision and the moment of truth moment had arrived. After the awarding of the minor and major prices, it was time to celebrate Miss Dumaguete 2013. Congratulations to …

Miss Dumaguete 2013 – Lorraine Kendrickson

Miss Dumaguete 2013 Grand Coronation Night

Folk dance competition at Sandurot Fiestival

Sandurot 2013 Folkdance and Harana Competition

November 22, 2013/in 2013, Galleries

The Theme “Embracing The Global Culture, Enriching Local Tradition” was brought alive during the Sandurot 2013 Folkdance and Harana competition. It is important to keep Filipino traditions alive, specially nowadays where the young generation is more into Hip Hop and Facebook.

Folk Dance Bamboo Dumaguete Sandurot Fiestival

This great event showed the beauty and significance to keep in touch with ones own roots. We hope you enjoy our pictures.

A great competition, which should not be missed next time.

Sandurot Dance Sport Competition 2013

November 21, 2013/in 2013, Dumaguete, Galleries

Due to heavy rain late afternoon, the Dance Sport Competition 2013 started with a delay of 90 minutes, a very wise decision of the organizers. The participants need for their steps a dry stage to make sure that nobody slips and ruins their performance, or even worse, getting injured. Five participating pairs were judged in Cha Cha, Chive and Rumba.

Sandurot Fiestival Dancesport-competition

Pictures of the Dance Sport Competition 2013

(click on pictures to magnify)

As it is a competition, there need to be winners. However, for us all participants were winner. Nowadays Dance Sport is not necessarily in the focus of the young generation; therefore it was great to watch this event and the enthusiasm for dance sport of all five pairs.

Sandurot Dancesport-competition 2013

Miss Dumaguete 2013 – Talent Night

November 17, 2013/in 2013, Galleries

The Miss Dumaguete 2013 Talent Night was held last night in Quezon Park. The VIPs of Dumaguete and a good crowd witnessed the eight lovely ladies competing with their talent for the Miss Dumaguete 2013 title. The event started with only 30 minutes delay, which is already an outstanding performance by the organizer of the Miss Dumaguete 2013 event.

Dumaguete Mayor Manuel Chiquiting Sagarbarria declares the Dumaguete Fiesta 2013 opened

After the invocation and the national anthem all eight candidates presented their Festival Costumes. Following the first round, our boss, Manuel “Chiquiting” Sagarbarria was called on Stage. He did not only declare the the 65th charter day celebrations and the Sandurot Festival 2013 opened, he also announced a generous 1 Million Peso donation for the victims of Typhoon Yolanda, which devestated some areas of the Philippine archipelago last Friday.

Miss Dumaguete 2013 – Wonderful Costumes at the Talent Night at Quezon Park

After the opening ceremony the talent portion started. The audience in Quezon Park saw a great show where all candidates for Miss Dumaguete 2013 showed to be capable to wear the crown.

One word of critics might still be allowed. As it is understandable, that not all candidates have a special gift, which they can present on a stage (writing, chess or blogging as an example), they obviously need to listen to their choreographs what to present on stage.

The candidates simply relay on their choreographers. We believe those, who also get quite some money for that, should also come up with nice ideas and not warming up a performance, they made for another contest, which was held not even 2 month ago. One of the performances was a simple warm-up of a choreography of Miss Negros Oriental High School 2013, where thousands saw in a fully filled Maccias Sports Complex the exact same performance (and it wasn’t a very successful one at the Miss NOHS event either). This is not only laziness of the choreographer, it is also extremely unfair to the candidate, who probably pays good money to that person, to help her.

Miss Dumaguete 2013 – Talent Night

(click pictures to enlarge)

The Miss Dumaguete Magic Three Best in Talent

The Miss Dumaguete 2013 was a great event and closed the first day of the Sandurot Festival 2013.
For the Schedule of Events this coming week, have a look here:

Sandurot Festival 2013 Fun Run

November 16, 2013/in 2013, Galleries

The Sandurot Festival 2013 started with the Fun Run with City Government Officials, Employees and Tourism Stakeholders. While DumagueteInfo Net Service received a schedule where the start was announced at 5:00 am, Dumaguete Tourism Office, the organizer of the whole festival published a day before that the start will be at 6:30 am. So we went to the start at 6:25, just to see that the start was already done. Because of that false information provided, we were not able to take any pictures of the start. However, we still took some of the Finish-line and the runners, which stood up early to participate.

Sandurot 2013 opening Fun Run

Enjoy the pictures of the Sandurot Festival 2013 Fun Run

All finishers which were not tired had the chance to participate in the Zumba & Healthy Dancing Session which took place just next to the finish-line of the Fun run

Zumba & Healthy Dancing Session Pictures

Dumaguete Project Santa Thursday Club at Provincial Hospital 2012

Christmas for the Kids at Provincial Hospital

October 26, 2013/in 2012, Dumaguete, Galleries

Some folks organize traditionally some special Christmas for the children, which are admitted to Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital in Dumaguete at Christmas. The guys and girls will meet on 23rd of December downtown at Casablanca Restaurant and go to the Hospital together.

Dumaguete Project Santa Thursday Club at Provincial Hospital 2012

As we couldn’t write it better, below the original post as a quote:

Project Santa 13

Have you noticed how quickly the time flies by ? Yep, me too. Every year seems to disappear a bit quicker than the one before. It seems like only yesterday that we were scrabbling around, ticking off lists, packing bags, and testing cuddly toys for the surprise visit of Santa to the children in the Provincial Hospital at Christmas. But the clock never stands still and here we are again almost halfway through the “ber” months. Two months from today will be Christmas Eve, so it’s time to kick-start Project Santa 13. Last year we provided gift bags for 150 children, from new born and premature babies to 11 years old, and we just about made the mark in quantity. So this year we will provide for 200 children. At just 200 pesos per child the Christmas fund will need 40,000 pesos. The largest group is the walking age to 5, so the breakdown of gift bags will possibly be as follows:-

New babies to pre-walking – 50 bags.
Walking to 5/6 ish unisex – 70 bags.
5/6 to 11 ish girls – 40 bags.
5/6 to 11 ish boys – 40 bags. Total 200 bags.

The age groups of those in there can never be accurately predicted as there are constant admissions and departures. So the increased quantity of gift bags for the 5/6/7 years old age bracket gives us a grey area where the child could get a gift bag from any of the categories other than new babies. All of the bags contain hygiene products with variations according to age and sex, plus games, books, colouring books, pens, yo-yo’s, dolls, cars, things that bounce and things that don’t, plus all new babies and unisex to 5/6 also have a safe cuddly toy.

I risk repeating myself here from last year, but I make no apologies for that. The children that are in there at Christmas are from the poorest and most marginalised sections of society. Most know what Christmas is, but none of them have experienced the indulgences that we take for granted in the western world. They’re sick, they’re in a strange environment, they’re in pain and they’re frightened. Some of them, sadly, may not have another Christmas. For them it’s just another day amongst the 365, and our object is to change that. It only takes an hour to hand out the gifts, but the look of surprise and excitement from the kids makes it a truly magical hour.

I’d like to emphasise, so that there can be no misinterpretation, that this is a notice of intent, simply an announcement of what we plan, and is in no way a solicitation for donations. Any help is gratefully received, but that is a matter for each individuals conscience and generosity. We kick-off today with 5000 in the pot. Come what may, I guarantee that the 40k will be there.

One hour. Free
One gift bag. 200 pesos.
One smile from a sick child. Priceless.

While surely everybody is busy to feast at the companies Christmas parties, family gatherings and so on, any kind of support is appreciated.

Just be a part of it to create a smile like on the picture below.

The Happy Santa’s Helper..

The Preparation

Roger Standley Thursday Club Shopping

The whole event does not take much longer than 1 – 2 hours. If you have any questions, want to share some of your precious time, or even have 200 Peso left to give one of those poor children a very special day, just get in touch with us via the contact form.

Check out this video with more pictures of Project Santa:

Buglasan 2013 King & Queen Competition

October 19, 2013/in 2013, Galleries

The Buglasan 2013 King and Queen Competition was as colorful as ever. While it does not draw that much attention as a “Miss pageant”, it is one of the most colorful and flamboyant events of the week-long Buglasan celebration. The costumes are breathtaking and the candidates stunning. Check out our gallery below and surely you understand what we are talking about.