On October 13, 2024, Radford’s Filipino-American club collaborated with the JayCees of Honolulu, a nonprofit organization, to bring their own Kamayan Festival to life.

The Kamayan Festival is an annual event hosted by the Filipino JayCees of Honolulu. The purpose of this event is to educate its attendees about Filipino food, culture, and tradition in the Philippines.

The word ‘Kamayan’ is Tagalog for ‘eating with the hands’ which is where the festival is derived from. The highlights of this festival were described by club officer, Senior Carl Dulig, “They spread a banana leaf on the table with lots of food and gather around, then eat with your hands.”

This was the club’s first time engaging in an event like this, “We wanted to branch out our services… Events like these help out the Filipino community and the Aloha Harvest,” said club officer Sophomore Keilen Agpalza.

The club partook in all sorts of activities available. Karaoke, auctions, charity runs, and much more were offered at the festival. Singing is a vital part of Filipino culture and it circles around their culture, further bridging people together.

The members of the club cooked food, donated food, engaged in team building, and brought together many people. They gained community service hours and got to work with professional chefs during this event as well. Dulig explained, “It’s like a culinary class but very community oriented.”

The members of the club had their ups and downs, “We had good time management but we couldn’t get the desserts out quickly, people had to wait a bit, ” explained Dulig.

The Filipino-American club encourages students of all backgrounds to join the club if they want to come together with others, and participate in any of the activities they have to offer.

“Learn about Filipino culture and volunteer to help out the cause,” Agpalza encouraged.