NEW YORK CITY: Filipino American nurse Menchu Sanchez has become the toast of the four million-strong ethnic Filipino community in the United States, after she was publicly commended by President Barack Obama for devising a plan to evacuate high-risk babies at the height of Hurricane Sandy.

Sanchez, a registered nurse and transport coordinator for the New York University Langone Medical Center’s pediatrics unit, was cited by Obama for being a model for service and helping others “usually without fanfare.”