After two years of meeting online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, members of the BCBP Canlubang chapter in Laguna finally met face-to-face in a hybrid Men’s Breakfast held at a local restaurant on Saturday, March 19, 2022.
Twenty BCBP members and one regular breakfaster attended the face-to-face gathering at the Yang Chow Restaurant inside the Carmelray Industrial Park while 10 other members joined via Zoom. Youth members took care of the event’s technical requirements.
Jeresty Ramillano, Chapter Head of BCBP Canlubang, said members were “very excited” to finally meet face-to-face. “Iba talaga ang energy pag face-to-face. Sobrang na-miss namin ang isa’t isa,” he said.
Despite the lowering of alert level in Laguna, the chapter continued to observe safety protocols like temperature checks and use of disinfectants. Ramillano said those who attended were all fully vaccinated while those who have co-morbidities or have not completed their vaccination yet joined the event online.
Edwin Villaver, the chapter’s former head and now Regional Service Coordinator for Digital in the Southern Tagalog Region, was the Sharer in the event. He related how he was able to cope with the mental health challenges brought by the pandemic by serving the community as an Action Group Leader.
“Service became my therapy,” Villaver said.
The hybrid event was a completely new experience for the BCBP Canlubang as it required the coordinated efforts of organizers on-site and assistance from technical people for online streamers. The projector screen that usually showed lyrics of songs was used to display the faces of members who joined the event via Zoom. Small cameras mounted on tripods served as the window through which the audience online saw and interacted with those on-site.
“Nakakatuwa kasi we were greeting other members through webcam and we were seeing them through the projector screen. It’s a completely new experience,” said Norman Calub, Mission Director.
This article was written by Junep Ocampo, current Head of the Communications Ministry.
