we want to support all the filipina women across the country to succeed. that is a great gold, and i want to be part of that. [applause] thank you. i know my wife anita is very excited peter she participated in the luncheon today. i hear she is starting her own group, wow. so it was not just her love for the food. [laughter] i know the building strong committees that begins with people sacrificing as individuals. i'm not to let you know that not only with hydra and marily, with so many leaders, we have a chance to promote people. we have a chance to support you. it is exciting to see business changing, the glass ceiling breaking, and you're going to help us break the bias'.

i learned about the bias' at the asian law caucus. we wanted equity and family reunification in our immigration policy. we finally got back here with the california dream act that the governor just signed. that was wonderful. [applause] that is going to help so many of our kids get equity and education. that is one of the pillars. but you will work on the pillars. the colors and there's this still exist. barriers in government as well as in business. barriers in education. all of that, i think is going to be so open for you to work on. i want to be there with you. i want to congratulate the 100 most influential filipina women and congratulate you for your skills and your contributions. thank you for being here. to my pleasure to welcome the most powerful pinay power leaders.

pinay. [applause] thank you very much for being here in san francisco. i wish you great success with this conference and getting together. thank you very much. [applause]

>> did you know, and some of you do, i know. do you know that the first known philippine note to come to america were actually ship workers who jumped ship in st. malo, louisiana? and what they did was, true to form, they created a shrimp industry in louisiana. they tried the shrimp harvest in

louisiana, which is equivalent to the good old filipino hippie, right? because there's no refrigeration in the philippines, we would try everything. we dried the fish and shrimp. this is through history. st. malo, louisiana, the first known filipino immigration. thank you. number two, i think that we honor those women who have been very influential in their own ways, and it is always part of our tradition that we honor those who have led us to where we are. but they are here today, and i just want to a knowledge once again, author, writer, singer,

and guitar player, evangeline buell, former president of the filipino american history society in the san francisco- berkeley area. she was the national president, i am sorry. also, isabel. this is the face of women who have it in their blood to pursue the strength of the filipina women. and to them, we offer the leadership of tomorrow. all of us to dedicate the future for both of you. thank you for being here tonight. and so here we are in the seat

of power in the city of san francisco, and only in a filipino tradition can you combine power, leadership, and lupia. so i would like to call on our newest board member, a lovely -- i am proud of her. i knew her as a young girl, and she is really our host for tonight. so if you just keep quiet, you're going to get your food. ladies and intimate, board member of the filipina women's network, the one that can put power and lupia together, susie cansada. >> thank you, tita elena. i know everyone is hungry, because i can see the line for me already. i wanted to say, i look forward to this every year, and what we think mary -- thank marily.

today was amazing, and i am looking forward to what is to come. here we are. we are a manufacturer. but every year for marily, we become a catering company. we have three plants. we manufacture here and pittsburg, california. for fwn, i brought my favorite chef, who is ready to serve the fantastic meal that he is prepared for you today using are frozen filipino products. all of our different brands. and in the spirit of october and filipino american heritage month, i am asking if everyone here can share our food and our culture with a non-filipino friend. bring them to the filipino

eateries in your area, because we really need to support them. also, we have another filipino food company here, pearl with mamasitas. [applause] we had the same mission. we want to bring filipino food to everyone. if you can help us by bringing your non-filipino friends to filipino restaurants, that would greatly help. while we enjoy our fabulous friend, my brother, iran, is going to be -- ron, is going to be playing frosome music for usa contemporary mix of guitar riffs and electronic music. please enjoy the food and drink and in the honor of my grandmotot >> in closing, i just want to

make a few remarks to you know, it was dr. martin luther king that said "i have a dream that one day we will be judged on the contents of our character and not the color of our skin." and when i think about the leadership of fwn, marily, president, elena, our chair, these of the two women that stand tall in my eyes. and i can also say that for a lot -- for all of the members here from fwn, that these of the two leaders that make it happen. and i want to thank these two individuals, because whenever i would talk or interview, serving as your co-chair in the selection committee for the nationwide 100 most influential filipinas, everyone of you, when i asked the question -- how did

you get to become so influential? everyone said, everyone said -- i was just doing my job. and there are outstanding leaders in every field. science, technology, mathematics, medicine, politics, social work, teachers, authors, the list goes on and on. and you are all amazing. we would not all be here today if it here todayfor marily and elena. but give them a big round of applause. [applause] i just want to make a few announcements for tonight. for all the fwn honorees, 100 most influential, there is a practice session. that it's at 9:00 to 11:00. do not go too sleepy to go to the same ballroom where we have always met in the lower lobby,

the stanford ballroom. then tomorrow at 5:30 p.m., show up early so that we can be prepared for the actual gala event. i want everybody to enjoy your time here together. this is a great big celebration. have a great evening. thank you. [applause] >> ok, i promise, this is the last thing. i have to finish my drink. there is one special person want to acknowledge that was not here earlier. she has been behind the scenes, helping all of our banquets and our audiovisual needs, really reminded me what we need to be doing. the event coordinator mariluz. thank you for keeping us honest and on time. i want to thank our photographers and our videographers, because they really make us look good. they made you look good today,

right? your video sessions in your photograph sessions. remember, those photographs will go to the time capsule. so thank you, john, thank you, emil. thank you so much. enjoy the food. as i said, drink up. and

>> connect is so important. every quarter we have a chance to come together to get so many volunteers and so many providers to provide some hope for people who are homeless and you guys are the most precious people that we have ever assembled. all right! [applause] so i understand this is the 40th event. i was 40 19 years ago. but i feel younger every day. but the city has so much to offer, and when we concede to this idea -- and i know we're going to honor a great leader, robert garcia today for her wonderful leadership on this whole idea today, and she's so much deserves it, but you know guess what? this idea has not only resonated here in our city, we have not only helped over 22,000 people for medical services, with mental services, with housing

referrals, but we've caused some 220 other cities in our country, in canada and australia, to model their approach similar to what we're doing here in san francisco. so we've got a great idea. today we have a thousand volunteers. you're part of a great force. [applause] we have over 200 providers and, of course, lead sponsor i want to give a thanks to blue shield. thank you! thank you, tom epstein for being here today. in our corporate citizens are joining us because they know this is a way we can touch a lot of people. since 2004 there have been over 12,000 homeless people that have gone through the program not only project homeless connect but housing first. got in touch with people who cared about them. talked about what they needed and now are in long-term

permanent housing. isn't that wonderful? that's the way to do it. it's not good moving people -- about moving people off the street or shuffling them from one corner to another, it's about care. it's about humanity. it's about how they do if right. and that's how we get people to look at their long-term future. if they're not caring about themselves and they don't think anybody else cares about them, we're lost. we're going to increase our homeless population. so we're doing it right. we've got to plan, the plan is in place. ten-year, plan and reflects our policy here in san francisco that is permanent housing, long-term care for people. that's how we involve ourselves as better human beings. thank you for being part of this great, great cause in our city. thank you for producing the wonderful hours you're going today. thank you for volunteering your work and also thank you for changing people's minds about who our homeless are.

there are people right on the edge right now. i know there are fantastic protests going on on wall street and so forth because they're hurting our. financial causes in our whole country is hurting us. causing a lot of people to become homeless. we have to lead with our humanity. that's the way we should conduct not only social services but business this a more humanitarian way. getting people jobs, finding houses for folks on a daily basis, not to just be up to project homeless connect. but we have to lead the way and lead with our hearts. i want to thank awful you for being here today celebrating the 40th day event. thank you very much for being here. [applause] >> thank you. that gets me excited. what is, is is a collaborative effort. you didn't have to come out but you saw the need and said it's rainy and cold but i will be there.

that's what makes this group so exciting. give yourselves a hand! this project would not work without a collaborative effort. and so we want to thank you but we also want to thank some of the founders. gavin newsome who couldn't be here today was very influential and many other people that we want to thank. but sometimes we don't even see. you guys all know judith was very important from the very beginning. let's give her thank you for all that she's done. and also the next thing today i will honor one of the other people who believed in this and who said we have to do something. and we're together going to come as a community and that's barbara garcia. [applause] so she does not know this but today we would like to celebrate her. as -- she doesn't even know i'm connected to her and in the '80's, she worked in watsonville and worked in getting people who didn't have food, food. and for a very short time, i was

a child teenager, let's say. i was a teen in the early '80's and we didn't have food. we were there a few months doing migrant work and i was there hungry. because of a project she had done as a child she didn't even know, my family had food. this is the type of person i can believe in because for all of these years, she continued to say, you need food. let's get you that. you need health care, let's get you that. so today i'm going to have one of our other volunteers for the garden we have. how many of you know about ph.d. garden? a few of those. this is one of my favorite things. another thing barbara believes in is sustainable food, having a safe place people can come to every single day and being in a space, be comfortable. we have home grown foods. we eat together on mondays. one of our volunteers from the garden who is now one of the staff is here and he's going to talk about what the garden has meant to him and honor barbara

with a basket of goods of things we have from the garden like tomato and apples. so, welcome. [applause] this is ty. thank you, ty. go ahead. >> well, yeah, i work at the garden. i'm the garden educator. if you didn't know, it's a garden on lily and octavia, which is right off near page and oak. and everyone is invited to come by and check it out. it's a great garden. it's just a place for homeless people and recently housed people and just all types of people, any people, people in the community, citizens of the city to just come by and enjoy a time in nature and just be at peace and also learn job skills and, yeah, it's been a great experience for me. i just appreciate it a lot. so everything in this basket was grown in our garden and we have

some mental health herbs and plants that are good for making teas. people say tomatoes don't really grew in the city but we grew some. if you want to learn about those plants that are in there, just come by to the garden octavia and lily. thank you very much. appreciate it. [applause] >> thank you. >> so thank you to barbara and all of the other founders that we get to celebrate today and we look forward to our 50th event. and 60th and 70th because as mayor lee said, this is a pioneer project. which what makes it pioneer isn't the city or just me, it's all of us. it's you, it's the city, it's the leadership of this city. it's all of us coming together and saying, we're going to do something today. so thank you so much. blue shield has been a sponsor since the very beginning of project homeless connect.

today we have tom epstein, here from blue shield, who will say a few words. we have a lot of volunteers today. i see a lot of blue shield cares. so thank you! tom has been helping people for many, many years. he served in the clinton administration. he's worked here in this city with blue shield. so it's a pleasure to have him here today and he's going to talk a little bit what it means for blue shield to be part of homeless connect. >> thank you, and it's an honor to be on the same program with mayor lee. he's showing outstanding lordship on this program from the very beginning and it's very exciting. wow, look at all of you. so many people, awesome show of commitment. it's really great. anybody who spends time in san francisco realizes there's a great need, a lot of people who need help out there and the people lined up outside, of

course, are a reflection of that. what's needed is a collaboration between government and the community. that's what homeless connect is all about. it's led by the city but we couldn't exist without all of the people involved here today. it's really an amazing show. the blue shield of california has been in san francisco for more than 70 years and we're a not-for-profit, based on admission of serving community. so we have always been very involved in activities trying to help the community. we have shield cares program that we have talked about with over 1,400 employees involved in that. i believe 125 of them are here today. and we're proud. i want to thank jennifer murray and rhonda will kin for putting that together. shout out to all of the blue shield people for being here. thank you. [applause] more important than that, all of you out here are going to fan

out on this huge arena and really help people all day. glorious thing. i thank you and congratulate you. [applause] >> so again i just want to end by thanking mayor lee and barbara and all of the volunteers and blue shield and thank you and all of the other people we weren't able to celebrate today who have been here for the 40 -- all 40 events or have really put in their work. so thank you. this could not happen without you. i will say that at every single event but it's so true. thank you today. i'm looking forward to an amazing day. what do you guys think? let's do it. ok, thank you. have a good day.