[PARTNER] Jon Melegrito, AARP AAPI Community Hero Award Finalist
/Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen,
Need your help please to support Jon Melegrito win the AARP AAPI Hero Award --- not as much for him but to give visibility on our mission to raise public awareness of the Filipino and American Veterans of WWII. Of course, Jon is well deserving of his recognition for having been a community action volunteer for the past 50 years!
We are currently in the process of developing an education program at the national level. It will be a web-based interactive, fully accessible program at the elementary to high school level to start. We hope to be in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution and others to make the education program be widely recognized.
The instructions are simple https://www.facebook.com/AARPAAPI/videos/1391794597623242/. There are sample responses below to the question on how to raise awareness. DEADLINE IS AUG 15th.
Jon is currently leading in the ‘polls.’ We want him to win.
Please share with you friends across the country. Many thanks for your support.
Very best,
Tony Taguba
FilVetRep Chairman
This is what you need to do:
1. Go to AARP AAPI Community in Facebook. (If you're not on Facebook, please forward this to someone who's on FB)
2. WATCH the 2018 AAPI Hero Award Video of Jon Melegrito (He is among tne ten finalists)
3. COMMENT on the video in the AARP AAPI Community FB page
4. SHARE the video with your FB friends and followers
Please note that SHARING the video is worth 1 point, and posting a COMMENT is worth 5 points. Deadline is AUGUST 15, 2018.
To make your comments count, please address the question: “How can we raise awareness about the Filipino veterans' contributions to the American story?" (Comments must be authentic reactions and stories; one-word and other short comments will not be counted.)
As Jon said, winning this award is an honor for him, but the greater honor truly belongs to our Filipino World War II veterans. Through this award, we are able to tell their American story to the whole wide world.
Comments below are excellent examples and will sure to get up to 5 points:
Ben de Guzman Some thoughts: 1) California has shown us that there can be policy interventions with their state law requiring teaching about FilVets in the schools; 2) Storytelling- We should take individual and organizational efforts to document stories about Filipino WWII veterans while they're still with us; 3) Documentation- We should make sure we're gathering photos, videos, and artifacts about veterans and their experience. Thanks, AARP AAPI Community for starting this dialogue!!
Rouel Velasco To answer the question - develop curriculum to be inclusive in history courses that discuss WWII. college courses can include it as part of their curriculum...the first place I have learned about Filipino World War II veterans was in my ethnic studies course at the university. If this story can also parallel a moving/travelling exhibit that would be great like similar to Hawaiiʻis singgalot exhibit that reflected the 100 years of filipinos in hawaii. Perhaps also a documentary can be made telling this story and showcased around the world similarly to Domingo Los Banos, An Untold Triumph that gave voice to American Filipinos who fought in World War II.
Jerry Clarito Jon, I support your continuing effort of raising awareness about the FilVets’ contribution to American story. Maybe we can set aside a day for FilAm communities in the US to remember the contributions of our FilVets. Communities can work with school districts in this set aside day of remembrance. Good job!
Christy Panis Poisot We can build awareness by writing their stories down, read the books of those who have written them down, and educate ourselves about what drove Filipinos to unite and also not repeat the mistakes of what drives war.
Angeles Carandang Let's continue honoring the Filipino American WWII veterans at various events, develop programs where we can distribute brochures about their contributions, making it an important part not just of Philippine history, but of American history as well. The FilAm community must collaborate with other communities in the celebration of Veterans Day & actively participate in many activities for all veterans, to gain support from them when needed.
Wendy Ward I think gathering a group of Filipino academics and historians, etc to tweet about it under a hashtag like #PinoyWW2 or #FilipinoWW2Syllabus or something would generate more conversation and pointing people to resources. Creating an actual reading list of books, websites, people would be incredibly helpful too.
Veronica Nieva We should collect their stories and continue to share these stories through books and events, as well as working towards ensuring that these stories be incorporated into history curricula at all levels.