Brisk walking at 7 a.m. Discussing new projects with investment counselor and accountant at 10 a.m. Brainstorming with advertising and publicity staff at 11 a.m. Appointment with the doctor at 1 p.m.  Zips to the drugstore. On to the bank. Then to the post office. Dining and dancing at the Santa Ana Elks Lodge at 6:30 p.m. At home by 10:30 p.m., talks long distance to his scholarship foundation counselor in the Philippines about the new program he conceptualized earlier in the day.

Ably Estacion, philanthropist, educator, Elk of The Year 2008, is legally blind. Yet he lives a life with no limits. And makes a big difference in the lives of 27 young Filipino scholars.

The Estacion Foundation is a Philippine-based but United States funded philanthropy that provides college scholarships to deserving but financially handicapped students.

Founded by Abby Estacion in 2004, it is his way of “paying forward” for the blessed life he has been living for many years.

His early life was not at all easy. The eldest son of a poor family, Estacion graduated from Cavite Provincial High School in the Philippines but could not go to college. He worked as a helper in the U.S. Army where his conversational English was polished.

 When the opportunity came, he signed up with the U.S. Navy in Sangley Point in Cavite, Philippines, and was able to come to the mainland Unite States.

After serving two years in the Navy he got his honorable discharge and took advantage of the G.I. Bill which provided for his free four-year college education. He earned bachelor of science degree, majoring in accounting at Pepperdine University and started his career as an accountant in a company based in Culver City.

When his company transferred to the East Coast in 1982, Abby opted to stay in California. Having worked for 20 years, he was entitled to full retirement benefit, company profit share and separation bonus. He received a hefty $230,000 in cash. He took a long deserved vacation to his native land.

At that time, Abby’s cousin Manny Estacion was a vice president at Hongkong Shanghai Bank. Not knowing what to do with his lump sum, Abby entrusted to Manny, $200,000 of his money for investment, then went back to the Unite States to work with another big company. Another 20 years passed, and in 2002 Estacion found himself retiring once more.

Coming back to the Philippines, he learned from Manny that his investment had grown into multi-millions in Philippine pesos. Estacion felt it was time to share his blessings with unfortunate Filipinos who did not have the positive breaks that life had given him. Thus he founded the Estacion Foundation to open up avenues of opportunity and prosperity to deserving youths through college education.

The Estacion Foundation started with four scholars in 2004. Today there are 27 scholars in the list,  many of them dean’s listers.

An exciting and fruitful life is Estacion's idea of active retirement. His three sons, Mark, Richard and Scott, achievers in their own right, support his noble mission to educate and elevate the status of deserving young  Filipinos. After all, they too, have rich Filipino blood rushing through their veins.