Children’s dream of Jollibee fulfilled

Five children who cleaned tombs in Consolacion Municipal Cemetery  to earn P5 per job to contribute to their  daily  meals of rice, water and  ginamos (fish paste), got their  wish –  a family meal in Jollibee.

They didn’t spend their  hard earned coins.

An SM Cebu mall official read the story in Cebu Daily News about the Ewican children spending All Souls’ Day and All Saints’ Day earning extra money cleaning niches and graves at the public cemetery.

Last Saturday, the children and their parents were treated to Chicken Joy, spaghetti and vanilla ice cream in the mall’s newest branch in Consolacion town.

Their father Richard Maglasang was also offered a job as a carpenter at the SM project site.

“Dili jud ko kalimot aning higayona kay naka sulod nami ug Jollibee ug malipayon kaayo ko,” 13-year-old  Luigi told Cebu Daily News after posing for a photo with the Jollibee mascot. (I will never forget this moment because I was able to enter  Jollibee. I’m very happy.)

In the CDN Nov. 2 article “Dreaming of Jollibee” the children said they  had always longed to eat at the fastfood outlet and wanted to save up for it, but were discouraged by friends who said  they couldn’t afford it.’

”So we focused instead on our schooling,” said Luigi at the time. For baon lunch, they would bring rice sprinkled with salt. At the end of a good day at the cemetery, each child would earn only P20 whereas a one-piece chicken meal in Jollibee would cost P80.

On Nov. 3, Luigi sat down for his first Jollibee  family meal with his five siblings, Luela, 10; Jaynarb, 9; Jeric, 5; Cyril, 2; and 5-month-old Ritchel and their parents Bernadette  Ewican and Richard, all residents of Purok 2, barangay Nangka, Consolacion.

When the fried chicken was placed on  the table,  Luigi had a wide grin  while Cyril immediately picked up a piece  in his right hand and took a bite.

Jeric, after his spaghetti was mixed,  took a single pasta strand in his hand and ate it.Asked how  the food was,  Cyril shot back,  “Lami (Delicious).”

Their father Richard  was almost in tears about the job offer.

“Dako kaayo ni ug tabang sa akong pamilya.  Dili jud ni nako makalimtan. (This is a big help to my family.  I won’t forget this.)

Van Aberia,  SM Consolacion mall manager, said  there was a vacancy  in the mall, and they decided to  give Richard a  break to practice his trade as a carpenter.  He was due to return yesterday for his second job interview.

Never in his life, said Richard, did he expect someone to offer him a job and gift them with groceries.

After the meal, the family  was brought to the mall’s  mini stage to watch the Jollibee mascot dance  to the hit song  “Oppa Gangnam Style”.

After the short program, the family was  given gift certificates to shop in the grocery. They immediately bought  two sacks of rice. On their way home, they were  given a box of chocolates.

RJ Leduna, press relations manager of SM supermalls in Visayas-Mindanao, said that  after reading about the children in the paper, they immediately went to the Consolacion cemetery looking for them and bringing the Nov. 2 CDN issue with the photo of the children to show to bystanders. Someone showed them to the Ewican’s shack.

It’s not the last surprise for the children. Another CDN reader, Tessie Vasquez, a senior citizen from Mandaue City sent a handwritten letter  to the paper asking how to locate the children so she could treat them to Jollibee. She said she was “greatly touched” by the story. “Simple dreams of very simple people,” sh e said.

She plans to invite the family for a Jollibee lunch on  Saturday.

(CDN Correspondent Jucell Marie P. Cuyos wrote the article “Dreaming of Jollibee” as an All Souls’ and All Saints’ Day feature and was surprised herself to end up seeing the children live out their simple dream. – Editors.)