IN SEPTEMBER this year, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) will mark its 75th year of service with commemorative projects that pay tribute to
its milestones and achievements. One of these projects is “75 Stories, 75 Writers,” a coffee-table book that puts a human face on the organization’s often anonymous charity work. Created by Sipat Publications, the book sprang from PCSO General Manager Rosario M. Uriarte’s idea of telling the stories of individual beneficiaries. The stories themselves range from inspirational feats of individual persistence, to heart-breaking struggles of parent and child against debilitating illness, to the joys and fears of senior citizens in Golden Acres from fictional cautionary tales of winning the sweepstakes, to hilarious short stories on nurturing one’s favorite lotto numbers. Seventy-five writers from print and broadcast media, theater, film, the academe, and the corporate world were asked to contribute stories in a variety of prose, poetry, and journalistic formats. The stories are complemented by compelling photographs by some of the country’s best lensmen.
The book’s introduction is written by award-winning poet Marjorie Evasco. Editors for the book are Arnold Molina Azurin and Marla Garin-Alvarez for contributions in English, and Donato Mejia Alvarez, Luna Sicat-Cleto and Romulo Baquiran Jr. for contributions in Filipino.