FG37 Ends Early at 4PM: Organizers Address the Crowd at Friendship Games 2022
FG37 Ends Early at 4PM: Organizers Address the Crowd at Friendship Games 2022
At the 37th Annual Friendship Games at Cal State Fullerton, PASA Kaibigan organizers addressed the crowd from the stage and closed the field activities early, citing health and safety concerns. I was there to document it, and to see my bunso's first one.
Around 4:00 PM on October 22, 2022, the 37th Annual Friendship Games stopped. Organizers from PASA Kaibigan, the Pilipino-American Student Association at California State University, Fullerton, addressed the crowd from the stage and told everyone the outdoor field activities were closing early. The first speaker said it was due to health and safety concerns. My video, embedded below, captures the announcement.
I was there for two reasons. I came to document the day and write about it for PinoyBuilt. I also came as a Fil-Am dad whose bunso, Chesca, was attending her first Friendship Games as a freshman at Dominican University.
According to Pew Research Center figures cited on PinoyBuilt's national guide, 52% of Filipino Americans were born in the United States. Student-run events like Friendship Games are one place that generation gathers.
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Bunso — BOON-soh
The youngest child in the family. It is also a term of affection, which is how it landed in this story: the youngest is the reason I was in Fullerton that day.
Why I Was Not Going to Miss This One
I had wanted to go to Nica's first Friendship Games when she was a freshman at Sac State. In 2018 I could not. Chesca was still in high school, and I stayed home with her.
In 2022 the situation was different. I was in Southern California, less than an hour's drive from Fullerton, after a week of taking Tita Gigi to her Kaiser appointments. Chesca was a freshman about to attend her first Friendship Games. My nephew Keo was there too, with UC Berkeley's org. How could I miss it?
What Happened at 4:00 PM
I took the photo at the top at 3:53 PM, while PASA Kaibigan members waited onstage for the students to gather at the stage area. I was at the front, to the right of the stage. My video starts at 3:59 PM. The first speaker from PASA Kaibigan said the early close was due to health and safety concerns. The organizers then spoke for several more minutes, as the chapter list shows.
Watch on YouTube: youtu.be/v9dtPh-F94o
| Time | What the organizers cover |
|---|---|
| 00:00 | Intro and volunteer recognition |
| 00:20 | Announcement that the field activities are ending early |
| 00:45 | Celebrating the return to an in-person gathering after two years |
| 02:11 | PASA Kaibigan reflects on ten months of planning |
| 03:26 | Thanks to the board, coordinators, and schools |
| 03:58 | Score submissions and afterparty announcement |
What PASA Says About Friendship Games
PASA's own page for the 2022 event invites attendees to celebrate spirit, pride, unity, and friendship at the 37th Annual Friendship Games, presented by Cal State Fullerton's Pilipino-American Student Association on October 22, 2022. It describes Friendship Games as one of the largest student-run events celebrating Filipino-American culture in the nation, hosting over 6,000 attendees from over 40 colleges. That figure is PASA's description of the event. I have not independently verified attendance.
The same page lists Jaron Ramos and Jacqui Paredes as the Friendship Games coordinators and Nico Alimorong as the sports coordinator for 2022.
What Was Not Said
The organizers cited health and safety concerns, and that is the whole stated reason. Chesca told me specifics were never given, and I am not going to supply one for them. A permanent archive should hold what was said and mark what was not.
The Games That Ended Early, the Day That Still Happened
By the organizers' own account in the video, this was a return to an in-person Friendship Games after two years, built on ten months of planning, with thanks to the board, the coordinators, and the visiting schools. The field activities ended early. The day happened anyway, and a freshman from Dominican was in the crowd for it.
If a grandchild asks someday what Chesca's first Friendship Games was like, this video and this page are my answer.
PinoyBuilt covered Friendship Games from other campuses last October, too: read Chapman University Kapamilya's Friendship Games flashback and UC Berkeley's Friendship Games story.
- PASA Kaibigan, Friendship Games 2022 (CSUF). The page's subheading still carries leftover 2017 text; its body gives the 37th Annual, October 22, 2022.
- PinoyBuilt, Filipino Americans in the USA (U.S.-born share, citing Pew Research Center, 2024).
- Author's video recording of the FG37 organizer announcement, started at 3:59 PM, October 22, 2022. Hero photograph by the author, taken at 3:53 PM the same day.
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Founder & Editor
J.F.R. Perseveranda
J.F. (Jonjo) left the Philippines at age nine, spending a lifetime bridging the gap between his Marikina roots and his Chicago/Vallejo upbringing. A proud Hogan Spartan from East Vallejo and resident of LA/SF, he founded PinoyBuilt not just as a digital archive, but as a cultural compass for his three children to navigate their heritage, language, and identity with Pinoy Pride.
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