On the weekend of July 24-25 three Los Angeles sisters distributed holy candies at the U.S.-Philippines Trade and Culture Expo at the L.A. Convention Center. Our Filipino sister, Heidi Iseda teamed up with Emma Reed and Paula Fujiwara to spend the weekend at this fair. Heidi arranged baby-sitting for her three, Emma's three kids were out of town with their father and Paula brought her 8 year old son on Saturday while her husband was at work. This was our first experience trying an expo like this.

Parking was expensive so we brought two vehicles instead of three. We came before the doors opened to the public. We had to unload our huge supply of candy so we drove to the unloading area. We went in the back door and left one person with the candy while we parked our vehicles.

Once inside we filled small plastic bowls with candy and business card size Pure Love Pledge papers which included a mission statement and address, phone of our Pasadena regional HQ plus the PLA website and info on our Friday night cultural program. We then visited the booths and asked if we could leave a bowl. The reception from the booths was very positive, perhaps because most Filipinos are very religious Catholics who share our values. Emma volunteered to go around and replenish the bowls while Heidi and I stood near the two turnstiles at the entrance and gave candy to the families as they entered the expo. Other business booths were giving out fliers at the entrance so we fit right in. To prevent a sore back or feet, we alternated roving and standing at the entrance. Still, many hours of this was very tiring. There were performances of celebrities in the evening so more people came at that time.

I should mention that one of the booths offered to let us store our large candy supply and keep an eye on it. Also, there were several ethnic newspapers there which are interested in doing a story about PLA. Heidi is Tribal Messiah in Rosemead, California. Every year for some time now she has entered PLA in the Rosemead 4th of July parade. This year we participated with two decorated cars and dozens of CARP/STF/2nd generation members carrying placards along with some blessed families. We were not allowed to give out candy or literature in the parade but Heidi took photos and videotaped. She brought the photo album to the Expo to show to the newspapers.

As far as figuring out our result, we need to consult with our regional leader. We are just setting up the reporting system. Of course, many adults took candy so we need to take off some percentage from our candy count which hasn't been determined yet. We decided to divide our result evenly since we worked as a team. A rough estimate of how much candy we gave out was 21,000 pieces.

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