MSY’s tribute to sponsors and volunteers

It is only but fitting and proper for the Mariquita Salimbangon Yeung Charitable Foundation, Inc. (MSYCFI) to honor and give tribute to the people and institutions that helped consistently the foundation and Operation Smile for the last ten years. And so a dinner cum awards affair was held at the Capitol Social Hall with Gov. Gwen Garcia as guest of honor and with His Eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal giving the Invocation.

Ten years? As if it was only yesterday when Dr. Bill Magee and wife Kathy, co-founders of Operation Smile International, visited Cebu and MSYCFI Chair Kit Yeung asked the couple for Operation Smile to come to Cebu to mend the broken faces of our unfortunate children.

Yes, as if it was only yesterday when we started to see happy young faces after their cleft lips and palates were mended. And before that, we got the shock of our lives when we first came face to face with this unfortunate crowd of suffering children and perhaps, even more, the suffering parents.

Ten years of service to the less fortunate children and a few adults, and as of February 28, Operation Smile and the MSYCFI have already treated more than 3000 patients, setting them off on a new road to life. Needless to say, we are very happy indeed to have been part of their journey.

And we would like to say how grateful we are for having been part of this journey – a journey that has involved thousands of other volunteers: plastic surgeons, anesthesiologists, dentists, nurses, speech therapists, other professionals, countless donors and people of goodwill in hundreds of sites all over the world. We are proud to be part of that army powered by our core value that says: "No child with correctible deformity should have to live a life in shame if there is something that you can do about it!"

Speaking of Operation Smile…around 60 students from St. John’s School in Guam are now in Cebu and will be performing a mini-concert at Villa Mariquita at 6:00 o’clock this evening. This is dedicated to Mariquita S. Yeung in appreciation for her magnanimous efforts to help children with facial deformities.

To the students and teachers of St. John’s School in Guam, particularly Allan Nazareno—Chair of Performing Arts, welcome to the Queen City of the South. May your stay be pleasant, fruitful and successful!