2011 Christmas Party

We are happy to announce the date and location of this year's Christmas party. The venue is as follows:

BIBBAK-Illinois Christmas Fundraising Party
When: December 10, 2011
Time:  1:00pm - 10:00pm
Location:  St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church
                15 W 455 79th St.
                Burr Ridge, IL 60527
Donation per Family:  $25
Map: Click Here

Please RSVP by contacting us at bibbakil@gmail.com as soon as possible.  Our program will feature games for children, entertainment performances by youth, teenagers and adult members.  Families are encouraged, but not required to bring a dish, desert or drinks (non-alcoholic).

In addition to celebrating Christmas, we are also raising funds to support the preservation of our Igorot culture by donating financial assistance to the University of Benguet to support their Preservation of Indigenous Knowledge Efforts.  This year's donations will go toward the editing and production of educational videos of our indigenous dances.  Along with other universities, a joint effort to create such a project has already begun.  Earlier this week, 129 participants from 6 provinces joined to begin the production of these videos.  Portions of the raffles and entrance donations will go towards this cause.  We hope you and your family will join us for this festive event.

Pictures of the big video production "Powow" going on back home

Ma'am Lydia de Castro demonstrating the basic figures in the Ifugao dance with her students from the Ifugao State University

               

In Memory of Donald T. Simon

We regret to inform our BIBBAKIL family of the death of Donald T. Simon, a long-time member of BIBBAK-Illinois: Donald T. Simon and husband of Gloria Simon.  May he rest in peace.

2011 Fall Picnic & Camping: Belated Thanks

We wish to thank all who made last month's Fall Picnic and Camping event a memorable and successful event!  With cool temps and rain in the forecast for that weekend; BIBBAKIL Igorots still showed up to make the event. God must have favored us because rain did not make its appearance at all.  In fact, while it was raining in neighboring cities, we had nothing but sunshine and warm temps for the entire day of the picnic.

A special thanks to Vice President Gerald Batanes and his family for providing the pig and goat that was butchered and cooked Igorot style!

BIBBAK-IL Cell Phone Drive

Your cell phones will be used to collect funds to support BIBBAK-Illinois and our efforts to support the preservation of our culture by making financial contributions to help in the research, creation, publication and distribution of culturally-related Igorot books, videos and programs that members of the University of Benguet are spearheading.  See our Save our IK page for more information of such efforts.  

Check our "Events" page for dates and details of the two upcoming events where we will be collecting phones.  

2011 Summer Camping Trip

Some of the members of trip made a last minute decision to take advantage of such great weather by going camping at Blackwell Lake in Warrenville, IL. We wished more could have joined us, but campsites were limited and the reservation deadline was prohibitive. None the less, we had a great turnout and fantastic time. Here's a glimpse of our weekend together.



We will surely do another camping trip this fall so stay tuned and check back frequently to get the date and details.

2011 Summer Picnic

Despite the morning storms, our summer picnic was a success. Here is a glimpse of that day:



A short blog about the picnic can also be read at "Picnics of Culture"

BIBBAK-IL Performs at Reunions

On August 6th, we performed at the St. Mary's of Sagada High School reunion and at the Baguio City High School Reunion. Below are sample videos of the fun that we had.