Araceli Celly F. Adamo

Celly Feraren Adamo grew up in the Philippines where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Mapua Institute of Technology, one of the top technical schools in Manila. In 1968, three years after college, she immigrated to the United States. After working as a chemist for only a year, Celly switched careers when she began working for PacBell, a subsidiary of AT&T. She’s been in the telecommunication Industry ever since. She retired from AT&T at age 46 with the intention of helping take care of her parents who were both sick at the time. As fate would have it, both parents died soon after.. She continued working in telecommunications with various contractors. Ultimately, Celly returned to AT&T where she had been employed as a Project Manager. Just a month ago, she took a medical leave of absence to recoup and recharge her energy when cancer returned after having a bilateral mastectomy in 2013.

Celly bored a son, Alberto Joseph, in 1970. Soon after, Celly met her husband, Frank Adamo at an employment office in Los Angeles. Very recently on May 27, they enjoyed their 45th anniversary. They have a daughter, Christina and four grandchildren, Michael, Desiree, Shaylene, and Tristen.

Though quite busy all her life, including helping to raise two grandchildren, Celly has always made time to volunteer. She feels that God had given her so many blessings and always felt the need to give back to others. She was one of the Founding board members of the Bayanihan Community Group whose mission was to help students in the Philippines through college. She also found time to do community work through the Rotary Club in which her husband was a member. After her early retirement, she had an opportunity to work for a non-profit organization, The Providence Speech and Hearing Center as assistant to the Development Director. The experience gave her an appreciation of the volunteers who gave their time to help those who otherwise could not afford the care they needed.

In 1993, Celly joined Toastmasters, the world’s largest organization dedicated to improving communication and leadership skills. Through her involvement in Toastmasters, she mentored young speakers in their quest to improve their communication and leadership skills. One of the major projects was organizing a group to mentor the Model United Nations Assembly at Whitney High school in Cerritos. She always enjoyed coaching young students to improve their communication skills. She would often volunteered to coach young speech contestants and judge speech contests for Rotary, Lions, Optimists and other organizations.

Toastmaster’s International also presented Celly with the Excellence in Education and Training award in her role as Lieutenant Governor of Education and Training in 2005. With all her accomplishment in Toastmasters, Celly was the first Asian (and of course Filipino) elected to the position of District Governor of Toastmasters International’s Founder’s District for the 2006-07 year. Though she achieved the Distinguished District award for the first time in five years, her greatest achievement as District Governor was to ensure that all eight of her Division Governors achieve the highest level of honor, the President Distinguished award; an accomplishment that has yet to be matched to date.

Even with all these achievements, Celly became involved with Gawad Kalinga (GK) Community Development Foundation, a poverty alleviation and nation building movement in the Philippines, after meeting the founder “and father” of Gawad Kalinga, Tony Meloto and saw his sincerity to end poverty for 5 million poor families by 2024. Celly joined the Global Kalinga e-Rotary Club in 2011 as a charter member to further her assistance to Gawad Kalinga, the club’s signature project. As the Immediate Past President of the e-Rotary Club, Celly was able to extend her volunteer work by leading the club with continuing and new projects such as Vocational Training for high school students, lunch and gifts to Orangewood Childrens Foundation in Santa Ana, and supporting the Casa Hogar Orphanage in Rosarito. She continues to give back through her community through her company (AT&T) by volunteering to sort out food at Second Harvest Food Bank in Orange, Heart Walk for the American Heart Association and CHOC walk for the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.

A major part of Celly’s life is her spirituality. She’s involved in church as a Lector, Eucharistic minister and Sacristan. She was also a former board member and a long standing member of the Filipino Catholic Federation (FCF). More recently, she became a member of the Small Faith community and the Cancer Support group. As a member of FCF, she helped start the 9-day Simbang Gabi, mass starting at 5:00 AM, which has successfully continued for the past seven years.

Though Celly continued her passion for helping others, she had to limit her involvement when she was diagnosed with and treated for breast cancer. Through chemo and radiation treatment, after a bilateral mastectomy, the cancer was in remission until about a year ago. The doctors then found cancer in the liver. Nonetheless, she continued her volunteer work in church and the community through working with Rotary, Toastmasters and Gawad Kalinga. Remaining optimistic, though realistic, she looked forward to increasing her involvement once she regained her optimal health again. Sadly, for us but joy for her parents, God felt he needed her volunteerism and optimism with him.

Visitation and Rosary will be held Friday, June 9, from 5 to 9 pm at Funeraria Del Angel Pierce Brothers Anaheim Mortuary 2425 W. Lincoln Ave. Anaheim, CA

Funeral Mass will be held Saturday, June 10, at 8:30 am at St. Irenaeus Catholic Church 5201 Evergreen Avenue (at Grindlay St.) Cypress, CA

Internment will be held on July 8,2017 at 11:00am at Cathedral Memorial Gardens13280 Chapman Ave, (at Lewis) Garden Grove, CA

Arrangements under the direction of Funeraria del Angel Anaheim, Anaheim, CA.