A surprise birthday party, gentle ‘roast’ for TOFA-NY chair Elton Lugay

By Mayette Timblaco-Geraldino

Through a Carnegie Hall event that can only be described as world-class, Elton Lugay has been instrumental in recognizing Filipino Americans who are among “the best and most committed,” in the words of Consul General Mario de Leon Jr.

So, in a private celebration befitting a respected and highly admired trailblazer, friends and their family gathered on November 21st to surprise Elton on his birthday at the secluded Rhom Thai in a quiet Flatiron block.

Due to the secrecy of the invite, the celebrant almost did not attend the party.

But Elton has always been a trouper.

At about 7 p.m., laughter erupted from guests as Elton blew his birthday candle. Donned in red and green to match the holiday ambiance of Rhom’s lounge-like décor, friends and guests shared their birthday wishes to the man-of-the hour, peppered with well-meaning jokes about the latter’s long-lost boyfriends and all.

The messages spoke volumes of the guests’ appreciation for Elton’s down-to-earth personality, humility, heartfelt smile, hard work, boundless energy, creativity, and drive to do better.

Nursing consultant and CEO Nemcy Duran, who came all the way from Long Island, recalled that she was readily drawn to Elton’s ever-ready and warm smile the first time they met. “It was love at first sight,” she began, as everyone turned to her beaming husband Jeffrey.

“I appreciate Elton for his down-to-earth personality, despite his achievements,” accounting consultant Jaena Valles said. He urged the celebrant to face adversities head on, because “it makes you wiser and stronger.”

RN and Superstorm Sandy hero Menchu de Luna Sanchez described Elton as a “beautiful person.”

“I met a lot of beautiful people from winning TOFA, and was so surprised that Elton is a very simple, down-to-earth individual with a good heart,” she said.

Retired school teacher Lumen Castaneda affirmed this by saying that Elton is “simply unpretentious and well-grounded.”

“I pray for many more birthdays to come and more power and success in your coming projects,” said Castaneda, founder of the United Federation of Fil-Am Educators.

“Love him or hate him,” said community advocate Juliet Payabyab, “we can’t ignore the fact that he raised the bar in recognizing the achievements and honoring Filam leaders in New York!”

For my part, I said I came to know Elton as someone who has no mean bone in his body.

Elton’s friend of 10 years, Cristina Pastor, best summed up the group’s sentiments. “The secret to our enduring friendship is this: We see each other only during TOFA season. Putting our heads together for TOFA is a different thing. We have occasional disagreements over little details, but on the whole much of TOFA’s success has been because of his hard work, his boundless energy, his creativity, and his drive to do better than the previous year. I get exhausted just watching him. He has this vision of changing the way we in the community honor the best among us, and I shared that vision. It’s a challenging task that we and some friends took on, but Elton’s hard-charging leadership makes it work every time.”

Elton responded with profuse gratitude to everyone “for their kind thoughts and generosity.”

The rambunctious party, at turns emotional, lasted about two hours over a mouth-watering menu of BBQ chicken, pad Thai, tom yum soup, pineapple fried rice, jumbo shrimps, and fried ice cream.

Before calling it a night, a round of hugs and applause with Jaena’s words still echoing, “Appreciate your true friends.”