Gabaldon Project on track!
By Mila Glodava
The Gabaldon Project is on track! The new Board of Directors of Metro Infanta Foundation approved and made plans to launch the fund campaign for this long-overdue project at its recent board meeting held in Breckenridge, Colorado (Please see a reflection on this board meeting written by new board secretary, Dolly Banzon).
In photo, l-r: Melecia Garcia, Colleen Smith, Amelia Ashmann, Dolly Banzon and Mila Glodava. Not in picture: Kirsten Glodava, who had to leave early due to work scheduling conflicts.
The board agreed to raise the nine million pesos of the total 15 million the Gabaldon project requires. The school and government officials will take care of the balance of the project cost. The good news is that we already have nearly $50,000 (25%) in pledges and actual gifts towards the goal. The board would like to challenge Infantahins to match the first $50,000 with their own pledge or gift. We are asking every Infantahin to rally around this project. Whatever you can do to resurrect the Gabaldon. You are important to this project. The Gabaldon was our school! Let's make it "our children's" school too. In 1801 the Gabaldon Project received voluntary contributions in cash, in-kind or manual labor. I hope we can do this again.
You may recall that we started talks about this project in 2003, but Mother Nature and the 2004 calamity had other plans, and derailed our good intentions. The entire town, church and government focused their attention on the rehabilitation projects and to revive the town. And revived it did, even receiving many awards in the process.
Finally in 2008, the Gabaldon Project was launched on the school grounds of Infanta Central School.
As some of you may recall, Infanta Central School was one of the more than 800 beneficiaries of the Gabaldon Act of 1801, which allocated one million pesos to construct school houses all over the Philippines. A response to the American government’s desire to bring public education to all Filipinos, the Gabaldon Act was named after its author Rep. Isauro Gabaldon of Nueva Ecija and was credited for building school houses that guaranteed capacity of at least 60 pupils. The Gabaldon Act allocated no more than four thousand pesos for each school, unless the municipality contributed a counterpart of at least fifty percent of the total amount through budget appropriations, voluntary contributions in cash, kind, or in manual labor.