MabuhayRadio Launches “Smile Campaign” and Search for 12 Most-photogenic Filipinos for a 2009 Calendar

This web site will push Rev. Fr. Sean McGrath’s call for “Filipinos to keep on smiling in 2008 and beyond.” He is a priest at the St. Columban Filipino Parish Community in the Historic Filipinotown District of Los Angeles, California.

The Rev. Father Sean McGrath, S.S.C., called for Filipinos and Filipino Americans “to smile and keep smiling and laughing” in the New Year. He made the call to smile in his homily at the annual Christmas party of the FACLA on Dec. 22, 2007. The FACLA is the acronym of the Filipino-American Community of Los Angeles.

The FACLA is the granddaddy of all Filipino-American associations in Southern California, if not in the United States. It was incorporated on April 26, 1945.

Father Sean is a good friend of the Philippines, as he has done years of missionary work on Mindanao Island in the Philippines. He says that by nature, Filipinos are a happy people. He says that Filipinos can laugh and smile even when life becomes difficult. A sense of humor and a predisposition to smile are some of the good reasons why Filipinos can survive, if not excel in, any given situation, especially in their new foreign locations. More-than 8.0-million Filipinos now work and/or live in more-than 100 countries in the world.

Here are some more rules: There is no age limit. Contest is open to any contestant of any sex or sexual preference.

The MabuhayRadio is now accepting photographs of smiling Filipino women, men or even babies for posting in a special Gallery in this web site. The contestant has the option of sending a short résumé that will be published together with the photo. All entries should be submitted to .

The plan is for contest to run from February 2008 to October 2008 for the 2009 calendar that this web site will publish. Entries submitted from November 2008 to October 2009 will be judged for the 2010 calendar.

The proposed calendar may be the first Overseas-Filipino version that carries data about historical events. The calendar will include the chronology of Philippines-United States relations and the Filipino ties with Spain, Mexico, China and other countries that contributed to the making of the Filipino heritage. The calendar and a date-book cum almanac are geared to raise funds to support Overseas-Filipino and Filipino foundations, causes and concerns.

The online public has 50% of the vote total but people have to register first as MabuhayRadio subscribers to vote.

Contest rules may be finalized this month. We will invite Father Sean to chair the Board of Judges. The judges will come from the members the Philippine Press Photographers of Los Angeles and the columnists, writers and contributors of the MabuhayRadio.com. The members of the Media Breakfast Club of Los Angeles will also designate their representative to the Board of Judges. The ballots of the judges will compose 40% of the vote total. The plan is to give the online public 50% of the vote total but they have to register first with the MabuhayRadio.com as subscribers in order to cast their ballots. Subscription is after all free. The remaining 10% and perhaps the deciding votes will be in the hands of the top 20 contestants, as selected by the subscribers and the members of the Board of Judges. The finalists will vote among themselves for the top 12.

There will be no entry fee to join the search for the 12 Most-photogenic Filipino contestants. There may be prizes for the finalists and the winners – depending on the support of corporate sponsors. The winners may be declared Filipino ambassadors of goodwill. Depending on the support of the Philippine tourism industry and the Filipino flag carriers, they may be given opportunities to visit the homeland. Certainly the contestants will be provided with ample supply of the calendar and publications that may carry special supplements about the contest.  More details will be published in this web site as they become available. # # #

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