FilVetREP Secretary Jon Melegrito Wins National Award from AARP

Ben de Guzman via FilVetREP
(www.FilVetRep.org)

Media Release
​For Immediate Release
December 6, 2018

Ben de Guzman
bdeguzman@gmail.com
202-422-4909

“We want to build a movement, collective action- to honor, recognize, and take care of the Filipino WWII veterans (and all veterans), now, and into the future.”- Jon Melegrito

FilVetREP Team at AARP AAPI Hero Awards Presentation. From L-R: Executive Committee Member Jude Soundar, Elvie Melegrito, Jon Melegrito, Vice Chair Marie Blanco, National Chair Maj. Gen. Tony Taguba, USA (Ret.), Region 1 Interim Director Ben de Guzman
Washington, DC – The Filipino Veterans Recognition and Education Project is proud to honor our own Jon Melegrito for receiving the 2018 AARP AAPI Hero Award, along with Denny Chan from Justice in Aging. Jon serves as the Corporate Secretary for FilVetREP and his tireless efforts since the founding of the organization in 2014 have been instrumental in its work to raise awareness and recognition of Filipino WWII veterans.

“Jon Melegrito has been a leading advocate for Filipino WWII veterans and as we began our work, he came on board eagerly,” said Maj. Gen. Tony Taguba, US Army (Retired). “AARP has chosen someone who has literally been in the trenches for the better part of four decades serving the community. We cannot think of any volunteer more deserving for this award.”

At a ceremony held in Washington, DC on December 5, 2018, Jon received the AARP AAPI Hero Award surrounded by AARP leadership and staff, as well as by friends, family, and community members. A video describing Jon’s service to the community was screened and a grateful audience showed their appreciation. Denny Chan is expected to receive his award in a Los Angeles ceremony in January 2019.

Jon has generously dedicated an online fundraising campaign to help support FilVetREP’s Education Program. A year after the official unveiling of the Filipino Veterans of WWII Congressional Gold Medal, FIlVetREP has held over 53 events that have given over 1,200 medal replicas to veterans and their family members. Moving forward, FilVetREP will fund the creation of an online Education Program that will provide curriculum, resources, and stories of Filipino, Filipino American and American veterans so that their legacy will be ensured for posterity and that generations to come will be able to learn about this quintessentially American story of service and sacrifice.

For more information about the campaign, find it on Jon Melegrito’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/donate/305963110246663/

For more information about FilVetREP find our website at www.filvetrep.org or find us on social media at Facebook or Twitter.

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The Filipino Veterans Recognition and Education Project (FilVetREP), is a nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, community-based, all-volunteer national initiative whose mission is to obtain national recognition of Filipino and American WW11 soldiers across the United States and the Philippines for their wartime service to the U.S. and the Philippines from July 26, 1941 to December 31, 1946. For more information about Filipino WWII veterans and how to get involved, visit our website at www.filvetrep.org or find us on Facebook or Twitter.