AKBAYAN-FANEW - How It Came To Be

By Nanding Ambas

 In the Christmas of 2001, a group of Filipino families gathered at SUNDOWNERS BAR in Appleton. They were lead by Louie and Zeny Duenas and Gloria Finch and her husband Will. Louie invited me to this gathering, he and I being friends.  There I met some ten to twenty families, if my memory does not fail me.

Louie and I worked at the same building in Plexus and there we hatched the plan to make it into an organization. My ability to organize people would come into play as I was a Coordinating Principal II managing School Districts before we came to the U. S.

In the Christmas of 2002, we held another party at the same venue. This time, we had a bigger number of attendees because we invited other Filipino – American families in the area who we know.  It was a great night because the attendance was good.  During a break in the dance after a hearty meal, I took the microphone and floated the idea of making this group into an association to promote camaraderie and closer ties among us and preserve our culture.  Everybody was ecstatic and we told them that we shall invite them to a Picnic where the formal organization and election will be held.

On May 3, 2003, a good number of would be members came and attended the picnic held at Telulah Park in Appleton.  After a sumptuous pot luck lunch, I presided the meeting and the election of the Founding Officers of the organization took place.  The following people were elected to office:

           PRESIDENT                                 FERNANDO P. AMBAS

           VICE PRESIDENT                        LUIS DUENAS

           SECRETARY                                GLORIA FINCH

           ASST. SECRETARY                     EVA DAPON

           TREASURER                               TEODORA HUSS

           ASST. TREASURER                    ZENAIDA DUENAS

          PRESS RELATIONS OFFICER     LUCILA FLAVEL

                                                               IMELDA  WHITMAN

          AUDITOR                                    HENRY SICAT

So that the elected officials can perform their duties right away, we requested Dr. Felipe Ambas to act as the administering official.  They were officially sworn into their respective offices in front of the members.  Their first task was to think of an appropriate name for the newly organized association which will symbolize the ideals of our Filipino heritage.  These will be presented and decided upon in the first meeting.

The first meeting of the officials was held in the Finch’s residence. First order of business was the selection of the name of the association.  Louie suggested  FAANEW which stands for  FILIPINO -AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF NORTHEAST WISCONSIN.  Someone suggested the name should have a tagalong word with it symbolizing friendship.  The word AKBAYAN, which means shoulder to shoulder emerge and so It became AKIBAYAN-FAANEW.  Finally, the group agreed to drop the word ASSOCIATION as it is already obvious that this is an association, and so it became AKBAYAN – FANEW which means AKBAYAN - FILIPINO-AMERICANS OF NORTHEAST WISCONSIN.

 Prior to that meeting,  I asked Louie to invite Judith Lim to attend.  I talked to her at the Christmas 2002 Party and I learned that we were both teachers , that we are both leader trainers of the Boy Scouts  of the Philippines. I  had in mind of appointing her where she can best serve the association.  I invited also Steve Concepcion.  These two could work together very well in a committee which we shall put into place before anything else.  In that meeting, I appointed them with the concurrence of the other officers, to head the Constitution Committee.  Steve, being the younger of the two suggested that Judith be the Chairperson.  So the first committee was born:

          The CONSTITUTION COMMITTEE:

                    CHAIRPERSON:        JUDITH LIM           VICE CHAIRMAN:     STEVE CONCEPCION