By: Katrina Palana-Soledad
San Francisco, CA – Last September 17th, the Bay Area based organization, Club Royale, held its’ annual inaugural ball and gala dinner dance at the San Francisco Marriott Waterfront Hotel. This year’s gala was called “A New Beginning”. It was a night of glamour, excellent food, great music and merriment – all for a good cause.
Club Royale is a Filipino-American organization known for producing elegant social events, while at the same time providing humanitarian support to charitable projects, and medical missions, particularly those involved in providing help to the indigents in the Philippines. This exclusive organization was founded in 1994 by Fililpino-American socialite Jett Viray-Navarro who is Club Royale’s First Lady and Over-all Chair. Mr. Gil Navarro is the organization’s President.
Every year, a special themed dinner-dance event is staged to gather the most distinctive members and guests who wear their elegant best outfits and enjoy a night of opulence and non-stop ballroom dancing, music, and entertainment. Jonathan Goco, master of ceremonies, entertained and pumped up the crowd to make the festivities more delightful and fun. Joe Alvarez Band provided beautiful music for the crowd throughout the night. The night started with an invocation by Fr. Charito Suan (pastor at St. Elizabeth Church in SF) and opening remarks by Engr. Jose De Guzman (President of Emeritus of Club Royale), Commissioner Ray B. Satorre (member planning commission in Daly City) and Vice-Mayor David Canepa (Daly City).
The event is culminated by the proclamation and coronation of the Club Royal King and Queen who serve as ceremonial figures for the year. And for 2016, Miss Lilly Smith and Mister Louis Rubio were crowned as Club Royale’s King and Queen.
Getting to know King Louis
Mr. Louis Rubio is a retired entrepreneur, having conducted 30 years of business ventures in Oakland, California that enabled him to build relationships in the community given his amiability and fair business sense. An accomplished ballroom dance enthusiast, Louis partnered with incoming Queen Lilly Smith through the last few years and jointly created with her an impressive competitive, victorious and rewarding artistic, musical and performance filled journey.
Louis is a a native of Hagonoy, Bulacan, Philippines, who graduated at the Philippine Maritime Institute in Manila and became a professional navigator sailing through all worldwide navigable waters among those are the seven seas, crossing the equator and the meridian multiple times including locations with the highest latitude.
Music, singing and dancing are Louis’ passion, craze and nutrition. He totally submerged his inspiration through Filipino and English love songs and simultaneously teamed up with dance partner Lilly Smith having inspired each other as ballroom dance king and queen in the bay area.
Louis is a champion for causes that enhance and enrich Filipino values, heritage and culture that empowered his philosophy as an effective community leader.
Getting to know Queen Lily
Miss Lilly Smith is a beautiful, amiable and respectable lady whose poise and wit command a strong presence wherever she happens to be. She has the aura of a strong, admirable woman in many circles manifested in hard work, enterprising business acumen and compassionate entrepreneurship. Her greatest success are with her wholesale and retail merchandise proprietorship for 20 years in Oakland, California, and the establishment and efficient operation of in-home senior care facilities, employing CAN and qualified care-givers in Contra Costa and Alameda counties.
From her childhood, growing up in the tough neighborhoods of Manila, Philippines, she went through grade school to high school stayed the top of her class. She earned a nursing and business degree at the Monterey University. She then studied a course in child psychology – which equipped her with patient care knowledge and ability in health care practice.
Lilly loves sports especially tennis and bowling, She is also seasoned ballroom dancer and competitor who has received several awards topped by the Westin Plaza competition judged by Dancing with the Stars TV personalities, Cheryl Burke and Louie Amsteel. Her becoming Club Royale’s 2016 Queen today is just icing on the cake in recognition of her strength, beauty and leadership as an accomplished woman role model and deserving of royalty.
