Project E-Care: Honoring Veteran Heroes, Inspiring Young Lives in Manila

A single morning of service rarely changes a community on its own. Its power grows when people keep coming back and when organizations with a shared purpose find ways to work together. That spirit was written into the pledge printed across the top of the event poster that inspired a cadre of individuals long before anyone arrived at the Manila North Cemetery on a recent morning:

"So long as there are veterans, the Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks will never forget them."

On what would become an unforgettable day in the Philippines, ECLARO Project E-Care volunteers arrived at Manila North Cemetery ready to help keep the promise of that pledge moving forward.

By nine o'clock, a gregarious team in white shirts and Project E-Care attired had gathered at the Manila Elks Lodge gravesite for an outreach program organized with Manila Elks Lodge No. 761, a fraternal organization with more than a century of history in the city and a long-standing commitment to the historic American sections of the cemetery. Over the next two and a half hours, the group would honor the memory of men and women who served generations ago, then would turn its attention to a group of children who live in the community surrounding the cemetery, children whose stories are only beginning. By the end of the morning, everyone felt like part of the same work, woven together like a fine tapestry.

Preserving Stories That Must Not Be Forgotten

The American sections of Manila North Cemetery hold the graves of servicemen who came to the islands in the early 20th century and, in many cases, never left. Many of them married Filipinas and raised families in and outside the capital city of Manila. They were laid to rest far from the towns where they were born.

Time, the inevitable and undefeated entity we are all familiar with, has been unkind to the stones that mark their memory. Inscriptions soften under decades of tropical sun and monsoon rain, and some markers have disappeared altogether. The volunteers worked through the section with that in mind, some clearing leaves and debris from around the graves while others moved from marker to marker, noting the names and dates the weather had not yet erased. A few sketched section maps by hand. Together, a cleanup aimed at having these heroes and their legacy revisited and remembered.

Preservation volunteers learn early to record before they scrub, since aggressive cleaning can wipe away lettering that is already barely legible. A careful record often outlives the marker it describes. The simple map drawn on a Saturday morning may be what helps a descendant or a researcher find a great-grandfather's grave years from now.

For Ray Pereira, Vice President of Talent Acquisition and Development at ECLARO, the work carried personal weight. "As a United States Marine Corps veteran, this was very personal to me," he says. "These veterans served our country, and even though they are buried thousands of miles from home, they should never be forgotten."

One name in particular stayed with him. Sgt. Maj. Calloway's life, Pereira says, "represents both military service and the deep historical connection between America and the Philippines." Standing among the memorials brought that history down to human scale. "Seeing these names on the memorials makes history personal. They were real people."

Service Beyond the Uniform

The outreach carried a simple theme, "Honor Our Pledges," and it resonated with Pereira in a way that reached back to his years in the Marine Corps. To him, the phrase speaks to keeping the commitment to those who came before us. The Corps, he reminisces, taught him that the duties of service carry on long after a Marine takes off the uniform. "We have an obligation to remember those who served and ensure their sacrifices are not forgotten.”

Veterans often talk about service as a habit, something practiced daily in how they treat the people beside them. The Marine Corps gave Pereira a set of principles he has kept throughout his career, and taking care of your people sits near the center of them. Leadership, as he sees it, means developing people and "building teams where everyone understands the mission and their importance to it." That idea travels well beyond a platoon, and it showed in the volunteers at the cemetery, each of whom understood exactly why they had come.

The day also surfaced a history that many people in Manila walk past without noticing. "Their stories remind us that the relationship between the United States and the Philippines goes back generations," Pereira says. Many of the Americans who served in the islands chose to stay and build their lives here. For an organization that brings Americans and Filipinos together every day like ECLARO does, he notes, that shared history carries special meaning.

Creating New Memories for the Next Generation

By mid-morning, attention shifted from the headstones to the children. Manila North Cemetery is a living community as much as a resting place, and generations of families have made their homes within and around its walls. Children are part of everyday life here, and many of them made their way to the Elks Lodge gravesite as the volunteers set out donations.

Project E-Care contributed school supplies to the outreach, and volunteers handed them out alongside members of the lodge. As they took a moment to learn the children's names, and a few shy introductions slowly warmed into easy conversation. For a family stretching a tight budget, a fresh set of supplies also frees up money for other needs at home. A box of pencils and a coloring set go a long way, jumpstart a future, even.

Pereira sees the two halves of the day as a single effort. "We honor the past by remembering those who served, and we honor the future by helping children who need our support today. Both are acts of service, compassion and responsibility."

Meeting the children and their families reminded him how far a modest act of kindness can travel. What stayed with him most was the chance to show people that they matter and that someone cares about them. In a place so closely tied to loss, those exchanges with the children gave the morning some of its warmest moments.

The Meaning of Volunteerism

Pereira credits the partnership with Manila Elks Lodge No. 761 for making the day possible, bringing together two groups with the same commitment to service. In his words, "It demonstrates what can happen when organizations work together for something greater than themselves."

Seasoned outreach organizers will tell you that the most valuable volunteers are often the ones who return. Familiar faces earn trust with families over time. Repeat visits also let partners pick up where the last group left off, whether that means adding names to a cemetery record or learning which supplies the children actually need. Project E-Care treats each outreach with that longer view in mind, as one chapter in a relationship that continues after the vans head home.

Carrying a Pledge Forward

The volunteers left Manila North Cemetery carrying pages of recorded names and the memory of children's faces brightening over something as ordinary as a new notebook. Those records may one day help a family locate a grave they had long given up on finding, while the supplies will travel with the children into their classrooms.

The veterans, their sacrifices, their lives. The children, their families, the hope of their futures. The importance and impact of giving of oneself, of being there for others. Every volunteer agreed, no one and nothing from this day will ever be forgotten.

READ MORE ABOUT ECLARO'S PROJECT E-CARE HERE