“We both felt a sense of loneliness and isolation,” says Quentin Norman, FACC (Filipino American Community of Colorado) vice president “We’re trying to give what we didn’t have.”

Quentin came to Colorado from the inner city of Indianapolis, Indiana, the child of a single mother and an absent father. When Quentin was eight, his mom moved him and his sister to Colorado, after she received a scholarship to Colorado State University. “Colorado was a completely different and foreign culture to us. We left our cousins and our friends to move to Ft. Collins, which was very white. It was like we spoke a different language. It was tough for us to assimilate to that culture,” says Quentin.

Photo: Vivian Egonio-Norman & Quentin Norman

Quentin’s wife, Vivian Egonio-Norman, president of FACC, was brought to Colorado from the Philippines by her uncle, when she was 14. “I was in junior high, and I was the only Asian kid in the entire school. It was a culture shock,” she says. “I was glad FACC was around, because it prevented me from being so homesick. I was able to speak my own language, eat Filipino food and dance cultural dances.” As a kid, “I was always busy dancing or volunteering, so it kept me out of trouble,” she adds.

Established in 1954, FACC, formally the Filipino Club of the Rockies, is a cultural center for Filipinos and their families, a place where they can feel at home. FACC creates a sense of family and tradition. Recently the group has expanded into the community, accepting members regardless of ethnicity. “Now we’re helping the unhoused, we raise money, write grants, have food banks every other week, clothing drives, school supply drives, winter essentials drives, and vaccination clinics,” says Quentin.

Today, the couple spends most of their free time running FACC. Says Quentin, “I decided when I got older and found some level of success, I wanted to give back.”

https://www.colorado-filipinos.org