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Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Just another weekend

With the sheer volume of Beautify CNMI! activities going on every week, it is getting cumbersome keeping up with this website by myself. Thank you, thank you, thank you to the new Beautify CNMI! contributors Cinta, Bree, Bev, Walt, and Steve for helping me post pictures and tell our stories.

Event #1:

Cinta has already published a post detailing Saturday's cleanup of Koblerville. Her office and the Board of Parole were at it again. Great work!

Event #2:

Friends of the Mariana Islands (website coming soon!) also hosted a cleanup on Saturday. They removed 3000 lbs of litter from Isa Drive between the Botanical Gardens and San Vicente Elementary School. Holy cow! Thank you!

Event #3:

Also on Saturday, Mariana Islands Nature Alliance hosted their monthly cleanup of Wing Beach. The 15 volunteers from MINA, ISA CNMI, and Ecosaipan scoured the beach for tiny bits of plastic and glass littering the beach.

Beautify CNMI WIng BeachSome of the volunteers found a rusted out engine on the beach. It was much too heavy to move, so we left it where we found it. Here are a few more pictures:

Wing Beach SaipanWing Beach SaipanThe MINA adoption of Wing Beach has been the shining star of the Beautify CNMI Adopt-a-Spot program. Not only is MINA picking up trash every other month, but they are also paying for regular trash pickup at the beach, planting native tree species, keeping the grass along the road cut, and removing invasion vines (while under the supervision of CNMI Forestry, of course).

Wing Beach SaipanIn the span of less than a year, MINA has turned Wing Beach into the cleanest beach in Micronesia (feel free to use that MVA). Thank you MINA for coordinating this great cleanup, ISA CNMI and Ecosaipan for providing volunteers (and for promoting our activities on your Japanese language websites), and special thanks to Brad Doerr for hauling our trash.

Event #4:

Beautify CNMI! made it to the shores of Tinian over the weekend! PSS and NMC teacher Bree Reynolds led a group of Tinian NMC students on their first beach cleanup. She reported on her weekend activities on this post. Thank you Bree and thank you NMC students!

Event #5:

Friends of the Mariana Islands hosted their fifth consecutive cleanup of Laulau Beach on Sunday. They had volunteers from Rep. Kaipat's Office and the SDA Dental Clinic. They removed 580 lbs of beach litter. Thank you, Everybody!

Event #6:

Department of Public Safety Crime Prevention Unit led some of their Law Enforement Explorer Program and Junior Police Officer students on a cleanup of Coral Ocean Point Beach. I was supposed to participate in this cleanup, but I missed it because they changed the time without telling me! The kids wanted to go swimming in the afternoon, so they did the cleanup in the morning! As I drove up, they were already loading the pickup truck with bags and bags of garbage. Thank you to the officers, the students, and their teachers from Hopwood JHS and Koblerville ES.

Event #7:

On Sunday morning, Mike Tripp and several divers participated in a cleanup of the water surrounding the Garapan Fishing Base. This was the least favorite thing I have done since I moved to Saipan in April. The water over there is NASTY. Garbage has been piling up there since WWII. Don't beleive me? When was the last time you saw a Schlitz Malt Liquor can or a Sprite glass bottle:

Underwater Garbage SaipanUnderwater Cleanup GearThis event was the first Micronesia Challenge event for Beautify CNMI! It will be the first of many.

Again, thank you to every single person that is helping to make these islands a better place to live and visit. Your work is not going unnoticed.

Angelo

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