Dear Fellow Officers, Board, Members and Friends of Cabrillo:

 On behalf of my wife Christine and daughter Isabella, I want to thank you all for the opportunity to become your 74^th State President.  It is a huge honor.

 I send my deepest gratitude to Tulare County #12 and their Convention Committee for their warm hospitality, unending generosity and friendship. 

 I also want to thank my Fresno County #10 for their efforts with last night’s cocktail party.  I especially want to thank my mom, Belle, my sisters, Margaret and Diane, Lucy Areias, Sharon Toste, my Aunt Mary Craven, Aunt Dolores Carnahan, Ana Paula and Adrianna Redditt, Rosemarie Huggins, Mary Fatima Coelho and Patty Simonian and others who I probably missed, to make that evening a success.

 I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped me get to this point. 

-All of you in this room.  For years many have you have approached me to aspire to the Presidency.  I resisted only because I truly felt that I was unworthy…and I still feel that way.  But I realized that this is a position into which I would grow and I would not do it alone
-Past State Presidents Marilyn Borges-Sampson, Arlene Amaral, Joe L. Coelho and .Carol Ann Sampietro and others for their encouragement and support.
-President John Tamariz and First Lady Mary:  I thank them both for their unending guidance and enthusiasm.  How fortunate are we to have had a team like them to represent us. I had a blast traveling with them to the various clubs statewide.  Those experiences will be in my heart forever.
-Second-Vice President Breck Austin and State Secretary Jaqui Austin…both life-long friends and passionate supporters of Cabrillo.  It is with them in mind that drives me and makes me strive to do things better for our club.
-Treasurer Barbara Hosaka…I’m not too much of a numbers person, so I will HEAVILY rely on her for her financial expertise this coming year.
-Historian Sharon Toste….my Cabrillo wife.  When Christine can’t travel with me, I know that I can rely on her to join me
-Fresno County Cabrillo #10:  I humbly thank them for their support not only now, but since the first day that I came on the Board in 1995.  We have come a long way!
-To my family and friends….and we’re a big one.  There aren’t enough words in the world to say how humbled I feel to have the blessings of them all in my life.  You’ve given me perpetual support every day, all the time.  And for that, I am grateful.

 I think back to the moments in Sacramento in 2006 when I was elected as 2^nd Vice President.  I remember standing behind the mic, bewildered, saying “I’m here”.  It happened again last year in San Diego.  And today as I stand before you, it seems unbelievable for me to say “I’m here”.  But I couldn’t have gotten here without the many people who came before me.

 Looking forward to 2008 and beyond, we, as board members, need to look at the following vehicles to utilize to make our Club attractive to new members and perpetuate its growth.  And so, if you will indulge me, I would like to discuss Cabrillo’s Declaration of Principles.  You find these principles on the back of your membership card.

 Dedicated to the civic progress of California by Californians of Portuguese descent in memory of their compatriot,
Joao Rodrigues Cabrillo, discoverer of California on September 28, 1542

-As Californians of Portuguese descent, we chose to focus on Joao Rodrigues Cabrillo, the first know European to set foot onto what would become the great State of California.  He symbolizes the willingness to explore and discover new things all in the name of progress.  As Cabrillians, we take that example as a guidance for us to break ground and become positive examples in our world.

 To observe September 28 of each year as “Cabrillo Day”

-To commemorate Cabrillo’s discovery, throughout our state we celebrate his willingness to take risk and our willingness to do the same.  Without risk, we will never know what we can or can’t do. 
Our finest example of this culminated on January 1, 2008.  On that day the Portuguese Community in California introduced itself to the world at the Rose Parade.  I personally want to thank Mr. Anthony Bettancourt of Tulare for sharing his vision of having a float in this world-renown parade and for his consideration in allowing Cabrillo to play a role in it.  Wouldn’t you like to see another float in 2009?  If so, we need to be more generous and support those efforts now.  To do such a float properly, we will need to help raise $200,000.00.  I would like to see Cabrillo play a bigger role in this marketing opportunity.

To erect and maintain appropriate memorials, shrines and landmarks to Portuguese navigators who discovered and explored California

-We do this every time we donate monies to charitable organizations that allow us naming opportunities.  

 Our earlier Cabrillians had lots of clout in the state and federal governments and were able to dedicate the Cabrillo National Monument in Point Loma, Cabrillo State Highway 1, a Junior College in Santa Cruz and endless high schools throughout the state.  

 In Santa Cruz County, members there are currently spearheading the preservation of the Cowell Lime Mines and their Portuguese Cabins on the campus of UC Santa Cruz.  These cabins played an important role in building California and the Portuguese community in Santa Cruz.

 In Fresno County, as one example, that club has a partition named after Cabrillo at Break the Barriers, an organization that, through the art of gymnastics, mainstreams kids who have limited physical capabilities with children who are athletes to perform athletic endeavors together.

 Fresno’s Chinatown is undergoing a slow, but progressive transformation under revitalizing efforts and one of those efforts is the Chinatown Museum.  This museum will showcase the 10 cultures, of which the Portuguese are one, that initially built Fresno and who had their start in Chinatown.  The museum will be housed in a 105 year-old building and Cabrillo will have a room dedicated to it when it opens in late 2010. 

But where the memorial to Cabrillo really stands out is Fresno County Cabrillo’s commitment to the Community Medical Regional Trauma and Burn Center in Fresno.  That organization has dedicated to Cabrillo the third elevator in their new five-story building in downtown Fresno.  I share this with you, because a very dear friend of mine and his family had to use the hospital.  In early December, on a crystal-clear and glorious afternoon, my friend German Amezcua and his family of Clovis was heading home after going to church and visiting his office.  As they crossed an intersection in their Honda Element, a Camaro traveling 73 miles per hour on a city street broadsided them, sending them over three lanes of traffic and into a canal.  My friend, German, was not hurt badly, but his wife Jessi suffered broken bones to the right side of her body and both of their sons, Sebastian, 9 and Emmanuel, 6 suffered major head traumas.  Sebastian was declared brain dead and his parents donated his organs to seven other people so that they could have an extension of life.  Emmanuel and Jessi are both now home and recovering.  I share this story with you because my new company, which does grand-scale printing, planned to enlarge photographs of Sebastian for his funeral and I needed to get photos from his father, German.  So when I called German to tell him that I wanted to come see him, he said “When I came to Community to visit my family, I took the elevator.  And I looked up and saw that the Fresno County Cabrillo Club had donated it.  I thought of you and your club and all the wonderful things that you do for our community.”  Needless to say, that moment made me realize the importance of monuments and the importance of Cabrillo. 

 Portuguese are too humble and we don’t do enough to talk about ourselves, because we would rather focus our energies helping others.  We need to become more marketing-conscientious and ask for naming rights to organizations to which we donate large sums of money.  Believe me, these organizations will go out of their way to want to serve you as you have served them.

 To teach and foster Americanization so that it shall not perish from the face of the earth

-We do this every time we Pledge Allegiance, we attend swearing-in ceremonies, sign up people to vote, work the polls, take new-comers to English classes or U.S. Government classes and, in my opinion, helping other ethnic clubs. 

 The clubs from Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco and Fresno Counties have Federal courthouses where Americanization proceedings happen monthly.  Those clubs try to attend those proceedings monthly, keepings Cabrillo’s presence known.

 Members from Tulare and Kings Counties offer and support classes in English and U.S. Government to newcomers in an effort to better acclimate them to America.

To promote scholarships and encourage better education

- Our scholarship program provides an inlet to the club.  The incentive here is to have the parents of college-bound high school seniors to become members so that their child has a greater chance of earning a Cabrillo scholarship.  The downside is that, sometimes, either after the child wins a scholarship or not, those parents choose not to renew.  One solution to stop that sort of attrition is to add another category in the scholarship judging forms to include volunteerism to Cabrillo, not only from the prospective student, but also their parents.  If the family donates volunteer hours to Cabrillo events, then we should give credit to the child’s application for that time.

-Creating renewable scholarships for college-bound high school seniors.  Instead of offering a one-time scholarship, we need to offer a four-year scholarship, renewable every year, contingent upon a minimum of 30 volunteer hours per year specifically to Cabrillo and upon their renewing membership to the club.

-Creating renewable scholarships for Community College, Transfer Students and continuing education students.  Many of these types of students either did not qualify or missed out on the opportunity to apply and receive a Cabrillo high-school scholarship.  This renewable scholarship will be a two-year scholarship, renewable every year, contingent upon a minimum of 30 volunteer hours per year specifically to Cabrillo and upon their becoming a member and renewing membership to the club.

-Creating volunteer opportunities for students.  Today’s colleges and universities not only look at grades and test scores upon selecting applicants to attend their school, but increasingly they are also looking at how much community service they perform consistently.  Schools like UC-Berkley and UCLA have gone towards the holistic approach in selecting students.  They look at the person as a whole, rather than by academic achievement alone.  Also they look for prospects that show consistency, loyalty and leadership in their volunteer hours.  Gone are the days of universities looking at students with over-achieving GPAs, test scores and a high variety of volunteer hours.  UCLA’s Alumni Scholarship program, for which I am an area chair, analyzed one student’s application and discovered that the student had volunteered more hours than there were in a year!  Such findings have reshaped the way we do things at UCLA and at other colleges.  So, in other words, Cabrillo can become a conduit for Portuguese-American students to get into higher education.

To perpetuate the achievements of their pioneer forefathers in California.

-We do this everyday when we announce that we’re Cabrillians.  As Cabrillians, we work hard to make our world a better place, however we are meeting up with some obstacles.  Membership in some of our clubs is getting older and it becomes more challenging for those clubs to stay afloat.  In addition to strengthening our Scholarship program to include volunteering to Cabrillo, I would like to see a buddy system between smaller clubs and larger clubs.  In doing so, my hope is to perpetuate all of our clubs with this kind of support.

However, I believe that Cabrillo has the wherewithal to continue its upward growth.  As we step into our 74^th year as an organization, we need to continue to move forward with innovative ways to attract, welcome and utilize members.  We are a rarity of a club, as we are one of few clubs in this great state and country that upholds the principles of Americanization, Education and Civic Duty.

In one last thank you, To my wife, Christine:  Thank you for your endless love and tolerance.  I fall in love with you more every day. 

To my daughter Isabella: My only hope for you is that more Cabrillo Officers, Delegates and Members consider to bring their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren to Cabrillo Conventions and State Board meetings, get them exposed and active in this special organization working toward the goal that when it’s your turn, you, too, will have a club that you can perpetuate Americanization so that it will not perish from this Earth, continue to support education through scholarship opportunities, and carry on the civic duty of doing good works for and giving to others.  For you, I hope that the Spirit of Cabrillo lives on.

In all, I am very proud of all of you for your efforts.  I know that as Californians we have the ability to make it happen.  And as Portuguese, we have the strength to do so!

In the Spirit of Cabrillo,

Steven Barra
President

Cabrillo Civic Clubs of California