Helen Alonso

"A true leader directs, inspires and guides people and have the integrity and driven, a go-getter, committed and confident as well as ambitious." — Benita R. Delfin

Helen is the eleventh president of FFRGOC and started her role last January, 2022. She is a seasoned FFRGOC member and officer in different roles for twenty five years and had been involved with all aspects of FFRGOC fund raising activities. With accounting as her background, she is very good with numbers and in the preparation of financial reports.

Initially, Helen's role was tough being a successor of a very good leader, the Immediate Past President Debbie Gonzales. But soon enough, Helen warmed up to her new job and carved her own niche and leadership style and worked hard to take over considering COVID19 times was still prevalent.

Yet, who is Helen Alonso? (Good question by FFRGOC Fely, 2nd VP and Wally Claudio, Director of Charity, contributors)

The answer as aptly narrated by Fely and Wally Claudio is as follows: • We are honored to work with Helen leading FFRGOC because she is a pure example of Christian service and generosity. How? — Got to know Helen when we became part of FFRGOC Area 1 South Chapter in 2008. — She is always welcoming inclusively to everyone and made sure we feel part of the group and invited us to participate actively in the Rosary rally plus introduced us to other members and made us feel a second family building many friendships through the years. — She made sure that every member has the sense of belongingness, that whatever we do, we are doing it together as one faith community to honor the Blessed Mother and our Heavenly Father. — She is generous and thoughtful with her time, attention and gifts. When I (Fely) was new at FFRGOC, I had no Filipina outfit to wear and she gifted me what to wear on several occasions including shoes. We know we are not the only ones who benefit from her generosity. — She treats everyone like her family and she is always there to acknowledge every single member of FFRGOC expressing her appreciation and gratitude. • She is devoted to the Mission of FFRGOC to promote Filipino tradition on our devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary including praying the rosary. As we pray together, we support each other to strengthen the unity of our families and communities. • Helen's energy is not only focused on prayer but also in ensuring that FFRGOC continues to thrive with charitable efforts to benefit the Seminarian Scholarship fund and feed the hungry locally through the Orange County Rescue Mission in the present and Mary's Kitchen in the past. • Helen is a strong pillar of FFRGOC, a great role model as a servant leader. And yes, we are blessed to serve with her and know that she is a good friend to us and the entire FFRGOC.

As the author of this profile, I have also worked with Helen closely, as FFRGOC Secretary and Web Administrator.

• Helen Alonso is a true leader as I describe above and considering I have worked with top management of Fortune 500 corporations with different styles of leadership and parameters. I retired from a very stressful life and with God's blessings, I found an organization, FFRGOC where I can contribute who value my contribution plus I treasure working with talented people who have the same values in life as mine. • Helen now has a "dream team" that Debbie began whose projects are always a success i.e. timely, efficiently run and within budget and benefit people and can be the envy of all project managers whose aim is to complete each project, big (millions) or small (thousands), of dollars and on time and within budget and on target! • Helen is a go-getter when she sets goals and I have a first-hand experience with her. She taps talents of her "dream team" and inspires and motivates each of us to deliver. • That's a true leader! — I am not sure if she knew I standardized Field Accounting Reports for all the financials coming from different countries for a big corporation so the company can consolidate for US reporting needed for US Corporate Tax Returns and SEC Reports but she requested me to standardize and prepare Agenda and Minutes of the Meeting and Attendance forms for our monthly Board of Directors meeting and I did. So our forms are now currently used and look very professional. — Another instance is when she requested me to make the minute pages as one whole document and really had to think how to do it and while driving, I got the solution in my head and she got what she wanted. She posed me a challenge that I can do it which at that time I really did not know how to do it but I delivered. — She also has challenged the other members of the "dream team" to deliver what she envisioned and yes they too delivered. • Helen also is not afraid to say no when she thinks the proposal does not warrant a yes. • Helen is humble and generous. I am also a recipient of her generosity meeting with her and treating me to a restaurant for my birthday. She becomes not only your leader but your friend. — She will have a fund raising dinner dance on October 8, 2022 on her birthday and will absorb the dinner dance expenses and requested attendees to contribute, voluntarily, to FFRGOC instead of bringing gifts for her. That's generosity. — She was also creative enough to request other people to attend Pista Sa Nayon including the clergy so they can enjoy the food and entertainment for paid tickets of friends/families who unfortunately cannot attend. • Helen also is a take-charge individual who will assign seats to all attendees of Pista sa Nayon knowing our Filipino culture who usually wants to be seen.

• On her professional background, Helen got her degree of Bachelor of Commerce, Major in Accounting at Manuel L. Quezon University. She currently works with Saddleback Associates, Inc. in Mission Viejo, CA as a corporate accountant for almost twenty four years doing financials and tax reports. With heavy responsibilities at work, I am sure it is tough for Helen to meet deadlines plus running the FFRGOC organization but she handles them with aplomb. There are times we have our monthly Board of Director's meeting at Saddleback Associates boardroom and other facilities in the past for dance practice sessions and we thank management for the use through our FFRGOC President Helen Alonso. • Most important is her family who supports Helen wholeheartedly. Her husband is Jonathan Alonso who also takes great pictures for our events that I use on the website. They have two daughters, Janice and Jennilee and one granddaughter, Alani. We thank the whole family for having Helen as our FFRGOC President.

Our FFRGOC community is thankful to you Helen Alonso for being our President and may God bless you with good health and ability to lead us!