Let me use my page to congratulate a friend here at the Carolinas for doing her share in making the world a better place to live in.
I hope my piece on Lynn Lorenzo-Polk, former president of the Filipino-American Community of the Carolinas Inc. (FACC), may serve to inspire our Filipino-American youths to also help in making their communities better.
Lynn Lorenzo-Polk will receive the distinguished Mother Rita Barcelo OSA alumni award from the La Consolacion College of Bacolod City, Philippines on March 9, when the school celebrates its centennial year.
“I feel humbled and excited at the same time. What an honor especially when it was my high school co-graduates who nominated me. These are men and women I went to school with from kindergarten until 4th year high school. To know that they think I am worthy of this award is surely humbling,” Polk told me.
The award is based on the school's founder Mother Rita Barcelo, OSA. The committee on awards posted the announcement on the school's Facebook page right after a review and voting based on the criteria set by the school.
The award is dedicated to the men and women alumni of La Consolation College Bacolod who contributed to developing their communities anywhere in the world.
Polk did this by volunteering whenever she can in the community she lived in, which in this case is the Carolinas which is far from the Philippines.
Her volunteer work includes feeding children and women, mentoring and being a community leader. Polk is a member of class '58 of La Consolacion College. Her class is comprised of 144, 92 girls and 52 boys.
The school is a private co'educational college administered by the Sisters of the St. Augustine. Polk holds a Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy from the Philippine Women's University in the Philippines.
She also earned her Bachelor of Science in Medical Laboratory,MT (ASCP) at South Buffalo Mercy Hospital Buffalo New York. Polk passed the government licensure exam and is a licensed pharmacist before she migrated to the US
But more than her education, Polk desired to help others and she is influenced by her parents Dr. Angel Suguitan Lorenzo and Conception B Lorenzo who extended medical aid to the villages even on the wee hours of the morning.
For their efforts, they are paid with sincere gratitude by their patients. Polk followed in her parents' footsteps, helping provide dinner to the women and children at the Women's Shelter of the Gaston County Democratic Center.
She also volunteered to work at the Domestic Violence and Rape Crises Center. Her work was recognized and awarded by the center. From the moment she arrived in the Carolinas from Buffalo, New York
The Women's Shelter of Gaston County is now Cathy Mabry Cloninger.
As president of the FACC Polk divided her time between the group and her job at the CaroMont Regional Medical Hospital at Gastonia. All this while spending quality time with her family.
Of all her volunteer works, the incident that gets her misty-eyed is when Polk taught a 62-year-old man how to read.
Polk also mentored two public schools, elementary and high school. These at Lingerfeldt School and at Hunter Hass High.
