The 2nd Annual Philippine Bat Festival 2009

March 1, 2009, Sunday, it was the 2nd Bat Festival held here in Holy Cross of Davao College-Babak Campus. HCDC, is one of the sponsoring partner of the festival. Dr. Ma. Iris A. Melliza, president of HCDC gladly delivers her opening remarks and she is the who one cuts the ribbon for the celebration together with Ms. Norma Monfort, president, Monfort Bat Conservation Foundation (pictures above). The core objective of the activity is to educate the people of IGACOS especially the high school students. It aims to further educate the public about the importance of bats and to dispel myths about these creatures and to promote bats as friendly creatures. IGACOS has the home of the largest population of Rousette fruit bat which now houses about 2 million plus in number (see picture below). For added information, Monfort Bat Cave is about 245 feet (75 meters) long and has five entrances. Bats cover 75 percent of its ceilings and walls. These are large bats, with males averaging just under a quarter of a pound (112 grams).

Series of activities were being held which are participated by the different high school students in IGACOS. Aside from that, there were booths for food fair, free henna tatoo, dance contest, film viewing and forum about the importance of bats in the ecology, cultural night, and lots more. In the morning, we have Bat Quiz and the Bat Jingle Contest, Poster Making Contest, and the Bat Kite Making and Flying Contest. As one of the hosts for the festival, we are tasked to be the judge of the following contest mentioned. I was pretty amazed of the talents of the people of IGACOS. The picture below shows the Bat Forum held in the social hall of the school. Honestly, I have lots of learnings about the bats, it really changed my understanding about them. I learned that bats are the primary predators of vast numbers of insects that fly at night and Geoffroy’s rousette fruit bats feed on fruit and nectar. Their role as pollinators and seed dispersers is essential in sustaining Philippine forests, including our important commercial fruits as durian. Each bat consumes 11⁄2 to 3 times its body weight nightly in fruit and nectar. This colony could consume 550 tons (500,000 kilograms) of nectar from durian and other trees, pollinating an incredible number of flowers.

I am sure that Mr. Batman feels happy about the activity. If you feel like you love bats already, try to visit MBCF here in IGACOS (ubanan tamo, hehe) and see yourself with these beautiful creatures.

Hairstyling and Make-up Application Workshop

These pictures taken from the workshop we had for Basic Hairstyling and Make-up Application..