GALLERY 2017:

The Final Presentation for the 2017 Letter to My ParentsTM Contest in Los Angeles was held on Thursday, March16, 2017 where ten contestants recited their letters dedicated to their parents. The Contest is organized by the Rotary of Historic Filipinotown and Reiyukai America.

The ten contestants-Melissa Barales-Lopez, Eduardo Barrientos, Maria Isabel Decolongon, Campbell Dopke, Katherine Hsu, Eugene Kwon, Carolina Morales, Zi Jun “Nancy” Pan, Alexa Robles, and Guadalupe Tapia-presented their letters to their parents, families, the general audience and the judges at the Silver Lake Medical Center’s Cafeteria in Historic Filipinotown, Los Angeles.

After the letters were read, the ten participants received a $50 Gift Certificate along with a Certificate of Participation. Each of the contestants will be also receiving a "1 Year TestPrep Course Subscription" courtesy of BenchPrep.

Based on the guidelines, the group of judges selected three award recipients. For this year’s contest, the awards were presented to Eugene Kwon for Bravery, Nancy Pan for Reflection and Maria Isabel Decolongon for Proposal. Each of them received a prize of $500.

The judges were Jose Relson Bañas (President, Kalayaan Incorporated), Patricia Bothia-Murphy (Parenting Education Specialist), and Matthew Fleischer (Journalist and Editor, LA Times)

Roman Mosqueda, President for the Rotary at the Hisotoric Filipinotown notes. "For the third consecutive year, we are happy to host our signature event together with Reiyukai Ameirca. We are truly thankful to the following contributors for making this event happen! We thank, BenchPrep, A.I Foods Corporation, Kareem Carts Manufacturer & Commissary. Co, Antonio Castillo from EverTrust Bank, Dave Hart from StateFarm, the Gubatan Family, the Ward Family, Tamami and Jantzen Gianfrancesco, Gina Ramirez, Rotarian Laurence Bender in Memory of Eduardo Samuel Ochoa."

"For this year's contest we have received 82 letters from 22 schools in Los Angeles County. There are stories of immigrants, stories of a single parent, stories of a challenging obstacles - each of these stories reflects the society we live in. However at the same time, once again, we have confirmed that all you need is one letter to bring a positive impact to the family. Working together with the Rotary, we will continue bringing positive changes in the community because we believe that we must change the families first to bring changes into our community and the society!" mentioned Katsuko Nakagawa, member of the Reiyukai America National Committee.

For more details and photos of the event, please visit www.lettertomyparents.com