Marissa Monera

2011 Halloween Fundraiser

November 8, 2011 By Marissa Monera Leave a Comment

The early snow almost put a damper on our Halloween fundraising party but our loyal supporters came out in full force anyway, and our party turned out to be a huge success. The most important part is that we met our fundraising goal so our UP scholar gets our support for one more semester!

We would like to thank everyone who supported us in this effort, both the quiet and the more active supporters. In these times, we hope that you will never tire of sharing your blessings with the less fortunate.

Special thanks to our DJ Rene Generoso and his assistant Anthony, and to Gabe Marquez and his friends for the mini-concert!

As always, we thank our faithful supporter, Seven Seven Softwares, for always being there when we need them! We would also like to thank Leo Alquiros of Tropical Hut Catering for donating part of our food for the evening.

Many thanks to those who generously donated but could not attend the party.

Thanks to the volunteers, members and colleagues plus their families who spent time, money and effort to make this a fun fund raising event! May you all continue to support FITG in all our future projects!

Finally, congratulations to our various contest winners, namely:

50/50 winner : Ruth Rogacion (thanks for donating the other half also)
Candy corn guessing contest winner : Aaron Agcaoili
Best costume (kids) : Bash de Guzman
Best costume (individual) : Ray Marquez
Runner-up : Xenchie Tongson
Best costume (couple) : Denise Samonte and Christan Lim
Best witch : Jeanette Melgar

Filed Under: Events, Featured

Save the Date!

June 21, 2011 By Marissa Monera Leave a Comment

We’re planning an end-of-summer picnic so save the date: September 10, 2011! We have reserved a spot in Johnson Park – it’s on River Road in Piscataway – and are in the process of planning some fun activities for everyone. Details will be sent out and posted up here as soon as we get them ironed out.

In the meantime, mark your calendars and leave the date open!

Filed Under: Announcements

New Website

May 28, 2011 By Marissa Monera Leave a Comment

So here we are again. A few months ago, our website somehow got flagged as a malicious site by Google. We have no idea how this happened but just to make sure that anything we’re hosting does not adversely affect your computers, we decided to rebuild it from scratch with a new and improved version of WordPress. It was about time anyway. The old site was somewhat static and clunky and it looked like nobody cared about FITG anymore. Hopefully, this new format will convey everything we have tried to accomplish the past ten years.

Yes, it’s been ten years! It seems like yesterday when we were just talking about setting up an organization, consulting with lawyers and accountants, coding (yes, actually coding!) our website in HTML/Javascript and ASP, convincing people to lend their talents to our cause, getting burned out, etc etc. I think most of us never realized what it took to get an organization like this going. But that’s a story meant for another article…

For now, I’d like to talk a little bit about this new site. We have tried to include everything you’d like to know about FITG here – past, present and future. At the bottom of the front page you’ll see a list of our projects and events. We’re still trying to complete the write-ups for these but once that’s done, you should be able to see all the stuff we’ve done and continue to do today. If you have anything to contribute at all – your own experiences during an FITG event, pictures, videos, etc. – please send an email to admin @ fitg.org (remove the spaces please; we put those in to fool the spam bots).

We’ve also added a few features to the site to help with our fund-raising efforts. At the top right, you will find a PayPal Donate button. If you would like to make a donation to FITG using a credit card or PayPal account, you can do so by clicking on that button. We have also become an Amazon.com associate so if you need to buy books (or anything that Amazon sells really), please do it through our store by clicking on any of the Amazon.com links on the page. FITG will get 4% of the sale amount back (with a few exceptions).

As we launch this new site, we hope to re-invigorate FITG and get those volunteer juices flowing again. We took a little break from actively organizing socials and fund-raisers but we hope that as the US economy finds its legs again, so will this wonderful community of IT professionals.

Filed Under: Announcements, Featured

2002 FITG Picnic

May 22, 2011 By Marissa Monera Leave a Comment

Event: Summer Picnic 2002
Date: August 3, 2002
Place: Geick Park, Old Bridge NJ

The 2002 summer picnic was simply a social gathering. We were there to have fun, play games, and catch up with old friends. Everyone brought their spouses, kids, moms, dads… and food.

Home » 2002 FITG Picnic » FITG Events » Summer Picnic '02

Summer Picnic '02

Slideshow

View 16 photos

Filed Under: Events

“Handog Aral”

May 22, 2011 By Marissa Monera Leave a Comment

“Handog Aral” is an ongoing project which supports two students pursuing a degree in Computer Science at the University of the Philippines. One of the scholars is sponsored fully by Marilou Szabo. Funding for the other student is provided by generous donors and through various fund-raising activities through the years.

Filed Under: Projects

Bantay Bata 163

May 21, 2011 By Marissa Monera Leave a Comment

Bantay Bata 163 was established by the ABS-CBN Foundation to provide assistance to child abuse survivors, disaster victims and child care in answer to the growing social reality that there are thousands of battered, oppressed, homeless and street children. This worthy cause was the beneficiary of FITG’s fund-raising dinner/dance on December 7, 2001 at the Four Points Sheraton in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Filed Under: Projects

Banda Rito, Banda Roon

May 4, 2002 By Marissa Monera Leave a Comment

Event: Banda Rito, Banda Roon
Date: May 4, 2002
Place: Jersey City

Banda Rito, Banda Roon was an evening of fun and lively music, featuring 3 live bands, special programmer/singer friends Ben Alvarado and Dennis Sy, and other guests.

Musicians Paul Zurita, Leonardo Javier and Anthony Ruda of JCL Override rocked the ouse with “Christian rock”. Cool jazz was provided by Blue Water, featuring Maria Santos as lead singer with musicians Eric Patino, Ronnie Sabangan and Richard Saguirre. Upbeat and energetic pop/alternative music was showcased by Socket 7, featuring musicians Juan Miranda, Richard Saguirre, Ronnie Lao, Antonio Reyes with singers Lou Navarro and Baloi Valenzuela.

The event was held for the benefit of FITG’s “Handog Aral”, a project which aimed to sponsor at least one financially needy college student pursuing a Computer Science degree at the University of the Philippines.

Filed Under: Events

Induction of 2002 Officers

December 7, 2001 By Marissa Monera Leave a Comment

Event: Induction of 2002 Officers
Date: December 7, 2001
Place: Sheraton Four Points Hotel,

The 2oo2 officers were elected during a general assembly held last October. Elected were: Billy Favis, President; Maria Santos, Vice President; Minch Capulong, Secretary; and Deo Dela Cruz, Treasurer.

They were inducted into office by Philippine Consul Joseph Gerard B. Angeles.

Proceeds from the dinner/dance event went to Bantay Bata 163.

Filed Under: Events

Miracle for Jimby

June 1, 2001 By Marissa Monera Leave a Comment

December 2000 was a turning point for those of us who started the core of FITG. Our original intention was for the group to be the main party organizers and social event planners for an ever widening circle of IT friends in New Jersey. In other words, all we really wanted was to have parties! But that month, we got word that one of our own, James “Jimby” McIlvaine, an IT professional from Livingston, New Jersey, had been diagnosed with leukemia and needed our help.

Jimby’s family had been in touch with the Cammy Lee Leukemia Foundation, an organization that helps find bone marrow donors for Asian and other minority group leukemia patients. CLLF was willing to hold donor screening drives in New Jersey but they needed a local non-profit organization to sponsor the event. This helped us realize the value of having a formal organization, and led to our incorporation of FITG in February 2001. In the meantime, “Miracle for Jimby” was launched. Although this was not our own project, FITG held donor screening drives and organized events to help raise funds for Jimby’s medical and other expenses. The response from the Filipino community as a whole, and the IT community in particular, was heartwarming.

Filed Under: Projects

A Mother’s Story

May 22, 2001 By Marissa Monera Leave a Comment

The search for Jimby’s perfect match has been going on for months now. Jimby and his family have expressed amazement and thankfulness at the number of people who have come forward to help out – most of them total strangers! More than two thousand people on both US coasts have offered their “two-teaspoonfuls” in the hope of saving a life.

On January 12, 2001, one such hope was kindled. We have asked and received permission to publish this lady’s story on the condition that she remain anonymous, so we shall strive to keep her identity to ourselves.

At the combined fund-raiser / bone marrow donor drive tagged as “Miracle For Jimby Dinner / Dance”, a young mother heard the plea for donors first-hand from Jimby’s children Jeep, Jazz and Jion. They reminded her so much of her own kids that she just had to respond to the plea. She and a group of friends had their blood drawn for an initial tissue typing to determine compatibility with Jimby. A couple of months later, she came home to find a message on her answering machine from the Cammy Lee Leukemia Foundation. Although Jimby did not match her tissue type, CLLF had found another person who did – a five-year-old girl!

In this brave lady’s own words: “The first time I got the call, I got goose bumps. Especially when they mentioned that it was for a 5-year old girl. For me, it was like winning something, because to me it is an opportunity to save a life, and that is why I went for it. The fact too that I have kids, made me stronger to go for it. Yes, I did feel some fear too that I will be taking risks, but hey, this is God’s way of telling me something. “

She has undergone the second stage of testing for tissue compatibility or what is called “high-resolution testing”. It will take another 30-60 days to find out if it’s still a match. In the meantime, the hope remains alive…

Filed Under: Articles