By Jonathan Gramling
Utilizing modern day technology, Marechiel Santos-Lang revitalized a long-standing community organization, the Philippine-
American Association of Madison and Neighboring Areas, PAMANA.
Santos-Lang, the outgoing president of PAMANA, is a former event planner with expertise in association management who
used social media to reach out to area Filipinos and project the warmth of the organization.
“We are catering to a very technologically adept people,” Santos-Lang said. “In our professional work, we use technology a
lot. So for us not to be in a technology realm, we get left behind. As you see at this party, you see a lot of younger people only
because we found a way to reach them better by having that platform through social media and the website. It allows us to
get the word out quicker in a very customized way. If you are a member, you get a special message just for you. It’s a very
personalized way of communicating and allows people to respond to you better.”
And by the response of the community who came out to the annual picnic on July 21st at Lake Farm Park, the effort was
pretty effective.
“The Filipino community is growing a lot,” said Jannette Jordee, the incoming president. “It has maybe doubled. The first
time we had the family picnic, there were very few, less than 100. Now it is more than 200. People come and go and there
are a lot of new faces. I don’t know all of the people here and we have eight representatives from FASO, the Filipino
American Student Organization from UW-Madison. I am happy with and feel blessed with the response and support of the
Filipino community. And I hope it will continue. The Filipino community is eager to see PAMANA growing and doing
something.”
A regenerated PAMANA will be going something good in the neighborhood.