Rain Lovely New Year!

Manila, Philippines. Dear Rain Love on Manila friends and family, I have been rather quiet toward the last month of 2009, wrapping things up on a personal level. But now that 2009 is through, let me share with you the small steps we have accomplished as the year closes.

• Since September 27, 2009, Rain Love on Manila Facebook group now spreads the love and information to 980 people all over the world. It started with a profile picture, and now we are a solid community.

• Those who have generously donated old clothes, some food items, shoes, blankets and the like have been gathered and shipped mid-December through LBC to be received by Dairy Zest Corporation, one of the organizations whose employees are among the list of beneficiaries of the Rain Love on Manila cause. The shipment is expected to arrive in end of January. We have also gotten the support of Sharp and Kass Uehling in the shipping of these care packages.

• Rain Love on Manila shirts have been seen and worn in Manila, New York, Canada, and several other places. Come send us a photo of you wearing your Rain Love on Manila shirt, to help us get an idea how many of us are out there raining love!

• Manila is pushing for their second batch of 100 shirts, and New York is looking into producing another batch for 2010. Maybe another color? Watch out for it!

• As of this writing, Rain Love on Manila shirts are now being sold in Analog Soul, at the Archaeology Wing of Powerplant Mall, Rockwell, Makati.

• As for what has happened to the lives of those we are helping, DZC and JWT report that all of the victims working for them have resumed their lives since November. Some have returned to their houses, while others have relocated to live with relatives who are better off.

I wish I have more time to meet and actually see the extent or trace of damage the super-typhoons have brought to the victims we know. So far, let's take comfort in the knowledge that this, as with all things painful and tragic, has passed. The Filipino has survived. We are alive, and we are pressing on.

Thank you to all of you who have been a part of reviving our downtrodden spirits:

1-JWT friends who have helped expand the message of Rain Love on Manila
and manage the task of Rain Love on Manila
2-friends of JWT who have contributed ideas to help make Rain Love on Manila exciting
3-Analog Soul who has given this mission a concrete form through shirts
4-C-Board of Pratt Institute Brooklyn for supporting the cause by providing the funds to print the shirts in NYC
5-Pratt's Office of Student Activities for helping promote the cause to the student body and facilitating the collection and storage of care packages
6-Graduate Communication Department of Pratt Institute Manhattan for disseminating the information on Rain Love on Manila to the graduate student body
7-Building and Securities Office of Pratt Institute Manhattan for storing the care packages
8-Sharp Communication for helping promote Rain Love on Manila in NYC
9-DAS for printing the first edition shirts in NYC
10-Kass Uehling for sponsoring the shipment of some care package boxes from NYC to Manila
11-School of the Holy Spirit friends in Canada who helped set up an alternate means to sell Rain Love on Manila shirts via Zazzle
12-Nylon Magazine for featuring Rain Love on Manila shirts in November 2009
13-Pratt Institute's Gateway group for the interest in featuring Rain Love on Manila in 2010.
14-Pratt Institute students, teachers, administration and friends who have bought and worn Rain Love on Manila shirts
15-everyone who has bought, worn and gifted Rain Love on Manila shirts in Manila, New York, Canada, California, and everywhere else in the world.

We are born with the urge to help. We are lucky to be able to love. Thank you all for taking Rain Love on Manila and making it your own mission. Salamat po sa inyong lahat.

Continuing to Rain Love everywhere and everyday,
Deb