Filipino center almost done
By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Central O'ahu Writer
WAIPAHU — After working around the world the past 20 years with nonprofit programs dealing with cultural heritages, Eva Laird Smith said being named executive director of the Filipino Community Center in December may be the pinnacle of her career.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
"It's a tremendous honor," said the 52-year-old Laird Smith, born in the Philippines in northern Luzon to an American mother and Filipino father, and previously executive director of Wai-
As construction crews finish work on the Filipino Community Center, Eva Laird Smith already has started to serve as executive director. The center might be completed in April, one month ahead of schedule. Its opening party is set for June 11.
pahu's Hawai'i Plantation Village from 1999. "To help head the work of something you always loved doing, along with it representing your ethnic background is a total blessing."
The $13 million "FilCom Center" — a dream of Filipino community leaders for decades — is tentatively set for completion in April, one month ahead of schedule. But the huge party to celebrate the opening will come June 11, according to Laird Smith.
"While we kept pushing for a first-quarter opening, we wanted this to coincide with our Mabuhay Festival, scheduled to run June 11-15 and commemorate the Philippines' independence from Spain in 1898," Laird Smith said.
At three stories and 50,000 square feet, the center at the corner of Waipahu and Mokuola streets will be the largest Filipino community facility outside the Philippines. The building is 96 percent complete.
Laird Smith and other Filipino community leaders such as Honolulu financier Roland Casamina and L&L Drive-Inn restaurant president Eddie Flores Jr. are being asked to find the right balance of cultural and business programs at the center to keep it financially sound.
"We don't want to be mired in capital debt over a long period of time," Smith said. "Ethnic community centers today have to be a business, too, to survive."
To help the facility become economically self-sufficient, portions of the center will be leased to area businesses. A technology center will provide computer classes to children and seniors.
The second floor will have a 6,700-square-foot banquet room and commercial kitchen to be rented out for such activities as wedding receptions and teen dances, as well as ballroom dancing, which is popular among older Filipinos. A 3,000-square-foot courtyard and separate meeting rooms are also being built.
The third floor will allow space for other nonprofit companies that provide community services including health, education and employment training.
Laird Smith's previous work experience includes maintaining the Philippine Presidential Museum in Manila — the former living quarters of ousted president Ferdinand Marcos. She began her career as deputy director of the museum at the Malacanang Palace in Manila in 1986 after the "People's Revolution" had overthrown Marcos, who fled to exile in Hawai'i. The home displays the lavish lifestyle of the Marcoses, including Imelda Marcos' much-talked-about 1,200 pairs of shoes and French impressionist paintings.
"It was an honor to host the palace for the people, after they were never allowed to set foot in it for decades," she said. "But I think the palace is also a lesson in unchecked power and corruption."
Laird Smith was also responsible for raising money to build an intergenerational service center for Seattle-King County's immigrant population in the city's Chinatown area during the 1990s. She also helped develop and manage the Coconut Palace in Manila as a primary venue for the Miss Universe pageant there.
She received her master's degree on museums and nonprofit administration from the University of Manchester in England.
Meanwhile, word about the FilCom Center has stirred excitement among the local Filipino community, which makes up the third-largest ethnic group in Hawai'i with a population of 170,635, or about 14.1 percent of the state population, according to the 2000 Census.
Laird Smith said FilCom Center officials anticipate up to 15,000 people for the center opening.
"About 5,000, 6,000 people alone came out for the 'Taste of Waipahu' event this past year," she said. "So we're really excited at the potential turnout; not just for the center, but for Waipahu as well."
Reach Scott Ishikawa at sishikawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.
