Fil-Am boy wins award for painting

CHICAGO – An eight-year-old Filipino-American schoolboy in California has won an award in the 2009 “Habitat Means Home" poster contest.Angelo Marie Chua-Basa was awarded by California State Senator Ellen M. Corbett with a certificate for honorable mention in the 2009 “Habitat Means Home" poster contest.Chua-Basa was the bet of his Pioneer Elementary School in Union City, a suburb of San Francisco, California.His poster painting of an egret bird, waiting calmly in the open water pond for its prey beside a mountainous background under a blue sky, is depicting the areas of Environmental Science and Arts Integration.Present at the awards ceremony were school superintendent, Kari McVeigh, his parents Ernesto Basa and Dr. Marie Lynn Louella Chua Basa and his eldest brother, Christian Ernest Chua Basa, his visiting grandparents from the Philippines, Dr. Primitivo D. Chua and Mrs. Marilou A. Chua.Dr. Chua was the former president of the Philippine Medical Association, a past district governor of the Lions Clubs International in Manila, and a past governor of the Philippine National Red Cross. During the awards giving ceremony, Dr. Chua also informed Senator Corbett that he is going to nominate her as laureat in the Gusi Peace Prize on Nov. 24, 2009 in Manila for promoting peace and environmental protection. The Gusi Peace Prize is the equivalent of the Nobel Peace Prize in Asia.

Young artist Angelo Chua-Basa poses with his proud family after being awarded for his award-winning poster in the 2009 'Habitat Means Home' contest in California. Joseph LariosaSenator Corbett had been to Bicol and Manila during the Sister Cities Twinning of San Leandro, California and Naga City during her earlier stint as a city mayor.