• ConGen calls on NYPD chief • Free health screening on May 22 • Concert features guitarist, soprano
Consul General Mario L. de Leon, Jr. paid a courtesy call on New York Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly on May 19.
De Leon thanked Kelly for the assistance the NYPD has been extending to the Philippine Center and the various events of the Filipino American community, including the annual Independence Day Parade held every first Sunday of June on Madison Avenue. They agreed to organize seminars for the community where NYPD officials would be invited to speak about its community relations and youth programs.
Kelly highlighted the NYPD’s diversity program, which allows it to recruit members from various ethnic groups. Some Filipino American police officers serve in the NYPD. The NYPD does not offer an ethnic breakdown within the organization, but there is an NYPD’s Asian Jade Society comprising police officers from Asian countries, including Afghanistan and Vietnam.
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On Sunday, May 22, the Oplan Kalusugan free health screening will be offered to Filipinos and other immigrant communities. Services, such as glucose and cholesterol testing, medical consultation, chiropractic and massage services, smoking cessation, and physical therapy consultation, will be provided at the Saint Sebastian Parish Center at 39-60 57th Street, Woodside, Queens.
“Health care is one of things that most people in the community have taken for granted, working too hard to make a wage and send money home to their families, so we would like to address that by offering this free health screening,” said spokesperson Michelle Saulon of Philippine Forum, which is organizing the event.
This project is sponsored by the Kalusugan Coalition through Project Aspire and the Lions Club.
Philippine Forum is a nonprofit grassroots organization located at the Bayanihan Community Center in Woodside, Queens. It provides advocacy, training workshops and services for New York area immigrants. For more information, call 646-715-6391 or email mdulfo@philippineforum.org.
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Musica Thema, Inc. is hosting a fundraising concert featuring Asian-Pacific composers at The New York Open Center on May 28. Proceeds will go to projects providing accessible themed concerts and educational programs to the public, especially in communities with limited access to the arts.
Michael Dadap
Katrina Saporsantos
As part of the 2011 Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, the concert celebrates the contributions of Asian composers to the musical arts. It features some of the greatest Asian and Pacific composers of our time such as Bright Sheng from China, Toru Takemitsu from Japan, P.Q. Phan from Vietnam, Michael Dadap from the Philippines, Queen Lili’oukalani from Hawaii, among others.
The program highlights a diversity of music from traditional folk music to modern chamber music. Performers are all seasoned musicians from different backgrounds, such as the internationally acclaimed Filipino soprano Katrina Saporsantos, the Japanese-American clarinet virtuoso Jennifer Taira, the Chinese harmonica player sensation Jia-Yi He, who has been featured in “America’s Got Talent.”
The New York Open Center is located at 22 East 30th Street, between Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue. Food and wine will be served. There is a suggested donation of $15.
Musica Thema Inc. is a New York State nonprofit founded in 2010 by a group of musicians to bring themed concerts and educational programs to the public, especially in communities with limited access to the arts. The organization is fiscally sponsored by Artspire, a program of the New York Foundation for the Arts.
