#PinoyCanada Wins The First Ever Award for Immigration & Settlement Category

Editor and Chef – Jonats & Master Chef Jeremy Senaris – PhotoCredit: HB Photography

Speechless! I wasn’t able to have the chance to compose what was in my mind into a speech on the night of the occasion as others have witnessed. You can say I was in a state of shock but now that it has passed and it feels more real to me, I can properly give my speech in a form of a blog.

I am really not much of a talker especially in front of a huge crowd. I am not good in public speaking. To be honest, I placed some coins in my shoes for luck as it doesn’t hurt to believe in superstitions. Lo and behold, we got an award. We really were not expecting anything. I guess we didn’t prepare anything for it, we were there just to experience it.

Pasasalamat, a thanksgiving gala, is the first of its kind honouring community members and leaders who humbly volunteer their time, effort and energy towards the Filipino community in Winnipeg. #PinoyCanada was nominated under the “Immigration & Settlement” category and “Filipino Portal” under the Arts & Entertainment. With two chances of winning, we were lucky enough to nab one!

#AboutUs
To give you some idea about our group, sometime in 2014, I was searching for some informational blog about living in Canada. Even though I found some, they were sort of outdated or with just a few updates. An idea came to me so I just  started a blog on my own. I was on my own for a year until such time that I ran out of topics to blog about. Then, I recruited passionate bloggers to help me create an online repository of everything about Canada life for Pinoys. Voila! Pinoy-canada.com was born. Later on, we then created a group we called #PinoyCanada Forum, and the rest is history.

After 2 years of online existence, we decided to add some entertainment and that was when Filipino Portal was born. We then started recruiting passionate YouTubers and began making some noise.

#TheNomination
To be nominated for an award that recognizes all our hard work is such an honour. To win the award is an even greater honour and privilege. I would like to share this award to my all co-bloggers. We are very honoured and thankful to receive this award. Special mention to Bryan, who had sleepless nights during our early days, and Zali, who has been a co-blogger for the longest time and has authored numerous articles.

To my fellow nominees, I really thought it was going to be one of you. Before I went to bed last night, I told my co-admin to just charge it to experience and not expect anything. Who would’ve thought we were gonna win it, we are just a bunch of bloggers who no one really notices in real life. Shout out to Judy Anne who is our lead organizer. Finally, a huge thanks go out to all the Pinoys who continue to follow and read our blogs, tune in and watch our videos. They inspire us to keep doing what we do and to improve our content continuously

#MeetOurTeam
Please don’t be confused with our teams, Filipino Portal and #PinoyCanada. We are all in this together. This is all about us. Our passionate bloggers joined forces with our passionate YouTubers and formed a group which now has over 90,000 followers.

Bryan – #Batman, Blogger @ dottolife.com, Host/Video Editor of Filipino Portal & admin of #pinoycanada
Nyorks – recently passed the Immigration Consultancy License, admin of #pinoycanada
Dale – Blogger @ grayninja.com, pinoy-canada.com & admin of #pinoycanada
Ven – Blogger @ tropics2torockies.com, pinoy-canada.com
Glenn – Blogger @ glennmauring.com, admin of #pinoycanada
Mark James – Blogger @ pinoy-canada.com, Content Editor
Momsiecle – Blogger at momsiecle.com & pinoy-canada.com
Hessed – Blogger @ hessedjoytorres, pinoy-canada.com
Zali – Script writer, host of Filipino Portal, admin of #pinoycanada, blogger at pinoy-canada.com
Gerly – Blogger at pinoy-canada.com, admin of #pinoycanada
Richel – Blogger @ pinoy-canada.com, admin of #pinoycanada
Annie – Host of Filipino Portal, guest contributor at pinoy-canada.com
Maria – Host of Filipino Portal, guest contributor at pinoy-canada.com
Red – Host of Filipino Portal,
Jopay – Host of Filipino Portal, Social Media Manager

And of course, Jonats, Editor-in-Chief of pinoy-canada.com, Talent Coordinator of Filipino Portal, and Admin of #PinoyCanada, who started it all. I am just really thankful for how our groups have been doing so far.

With this award, we will push for more and better content for everyone. Bearing in mind that we are doing this for all our kababayans, we will continue working hard for all of you.

You guys deserve more than this hoodie. Check your mailbox soon!