Planting Flame Trees With Kanagawa Truckers Association of Japan

Our friends from Isa CNMI, led by Aya-san Matsumoto and Horiguchi-san, led some members of the Kanagawa Truckers Association of Japan to this afternoon's flame tree planting at American Memorial Park. Beautify CNMI's Cinta Kaipat, Angelo Villagomez, Gus Kaipat, and the Kaipat boys (Marvin, AJ, Jun, and Dusty) along with my other nephew Peter Angui, joined the group. Brad Doerr of MINA was also there and brought the flame trees that were planted.

The flame trees that Herminia Fuscho donated, which had been growing under the Ylang Ylang tree at my Mom's house were loaded into the Beautify CNMI! trailer that Gus and the boys hauled to American Memorial Park. The rest of the flame trees will be planted as soon as the Park staff decide the most appropriate places to plant them. Ranger Nancy is off island, so we got to meet Ranger Rianna (I hope I spelled her name right). I was going to shake her hand when I introduced myself, until I saw how muddy her hand was (you'll see it in the slideshow), so...never mind. :) Anyway, thank you, good folks at American Memorial Park and Park Rangers Nancy and Rianna!

The Kanagawa Group makes a living driving trucks. It is remarkable and commendable that they came to Saipan to plant trees to do their part to help reduce the carbon footprint we humans have left on Earth. Thank you SO much! Arigato gozaimasu!

Lighthouse Cleanup

We painted the lighthouse from about 7 AM until 4 PM. A huge thanks goes out to Ken Kramer, Marianas RC&D Coordinator. He helped me all week coordinate today's rather large event. He was also the first volunteer to show up and the last volunteer to go home today.

Thank you, Ken.

We managed to apply a layer of primer on most of the Lighthouse and got a layer of paint on about two rooms worth of walls. We're not finished. We have to go back in a week or two.

Here is the lighthouse before we really got started:

...and here is the lighthouse at the end of the day:

We are about half way done. We're going to have to go back and add a little more primer and then paint over the whole thing with a final coat of paint. Here are a few more pictures:

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AFTER:
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The money for the paint was donated by the Marianas Visitors Authority. They donated $10,000 to Beautify CNMI! about a year ago, but it wasn't until this week that I was spurred to action.

There were two things that made me finally get off my butt and paint the lighthouse. The first one happened last Saturday when Dr. David Khorram's daughter, Nava, handed me an envelope full of dollar bills and coins totalling $49.02. She told me that she had collected the money at school to pay for paint for the lighthouse. I felt so guilty.

The second thing that made me decide that it was time to paint the lighthouse was one of the music videos from the Fiesta Pop Music Festival. The video was shot at the lighthouse and the whole structure was just covered in graffiti. It was time to do something about it.

So I asked MVA for the money, sent out a few emails, and over 50 people came out to help today.

Thank you, Everybody.

There were too many of you for me to remember. If I tried to list everyone, I would only get it wrong.

So again, thank you, Everybody who volunteered time, money, supplies, and resources today.

Like I've already mentioned, we are still not finished. I think we are going to go back two weeks from today. I'll keep you posted...and I'd love for you to help.

In much more important news, Wild Bill's Men's Soccer Team won the Tapachou Derby Consolation match against the Bangladeshi Sports Club to take 3rd place in the NMIFA Men's Summer League. Here we are after the game:

Spicy Tofu!

Have You Seen Cookie?

Please help find Cookie. Cookie belongs to Mrs. Aya Matsumoto. Aya-san leads ISA-CNMI, which is a very active partner of Beautify CNMI!

Here's an e-mail message I received from Katie Busenkell, Chair of Beautify CNMI!'s Animal Welfare Committee:

It's all about helping each other -

Aya, an active Beautify CNMI! volunteer, has lost her dog, Cookie. Time is of the essence in getting Cookie back to Aya safely, so we are asking for your help.

Cookie was last seen at 1:00 a.m. on April 6, 2007 in Gualo Rai, Pacific Eagle Bldg. She is wearing a red collar.

If you have any information, pleaes call Aya at 234-1210. Aya will be leaving the island on Sunday, so if you see Cookie after Sunday, please call Katie at 256-0243 or email me at busenkell@gmail.com.

Thanks for your help and support.


Cookie please come back...
I heard the bad news this morning,
and cant believe that your gone.
I hope this is all a dream that I'm in
what really happened...

I hope your not in pain...
I hope that your happy now
I hope.....
I really do hope for you to come back home tho...

please... by Marie

Editor's Note: If I'm not mistaken, Marie is Aya-san's daughter who lives and studies in Japan.

Thank you Katie and everyone who can help us find Cookie.

Rep. Cinta Kaipat