PLEASE allow us the opportunity to congratulate Ms. Marites Castillo and her untiring team of volunteers on winning the 2006 USDA Earth Team Group Award and the 2007 Governor’s Beautify CNMI Environmental Steward Award. We appreciate their past service as members of MOVER and now as members of Friends of the Mariana Islands, or FMI.
We have heard that there has been some talk in the community and that there has been some confusion as to the proper recipient of these two awards. USDA and Beautify CNMI! handed over these two awards to the group of individual volunteers from MOVER and FMI who, under Ms. Castillo’s leadership, have volunteered with Marianas Resource Conservation & Development Council and the USDA Earth Team as part of the Beautify CNMI! coalition.
Ms. Castillo and her volunteers have given their time to Beautify CNMI! every weekend for 12 months straight. The three people creating this confusion came to one tree planting event almost a year ago, didn’t help out at the event, and then left after they were prominently featured in a group photo. Do you seriously think we didn’t notice?
Let us be as clear as we can: as the former president of MOVER and the current president of FMI, these two awards belong to Marites Castillo and to the members of MOVER and FMI with whom she has volunteered her time. If you were one of those people, even if you only came to just one event with the intention of only getting your picture taken, I encourage you to tell the world that you were a winner, but the plaques stay with Ms. Castillo.
I hope this clears up any confusion.
ANGELO VILLAGOMEZ
REP. CINTA M. KAIPAT
Beautify CNMI!
Showing posts with label LTE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LTE. Show all posts
Monday, May 21, 2007
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
A Treehugger's wife gives tips on saving Energy
It can be done!
On May 4, you ran an opinion column written by Ed Stephens, Jr. regarding "Energy Costs". In the column, Mr. Stephens writes that he "cannot fathom a Saipan house that uses less than 1,500 kWh (kilowatt hours) of electricity per month." It is a reality and can be done-our home is proof. On average we use approximately 250 kWh per month. Yes, only 250. We live in an "un-insulated concrete sweatbox" house, not a condo or an apartment. We live here full time. In the last six months, our highest bill was $82, and that includes the charge for unmetered water. How do we do it?
- Don’t run the air conditioners. Get a few fans and open up the windows.
- Wash full loads of laundry. Use cold water to wash your laundry.
- Run a few clothes lines instead of using the dryer.
- Turn your water heater to the lowest setting and when you go on vacation, turn it off. Why heat water when you aren’t going to be using it?
- Replace your standard light bulbs with CFL bulbs. We use them in all of our light fixtures.
- Shut lights off in the rooms that you aren’t in.
- Don’t leave outside lights on.
- Plug your entertainment system (TV, DVD, VCR, etc.) into a surge protector bar that has an off/on switch. When you want to use it, flip the switch to on, when you are done, flip the switch to off. All of these components have an internal clock that draws a small amount of electricity even when not in use. Do the same in the kitchen with the microwave and radio. We also use one for our computer.
- If you have ceiling fans, use them. If you don’t, consider installing them.
- When buying new appliances, choose Energy Star products if available. We put our Energy Star TV in our living room even though it is smaller because that is where we watch TV 90 percent of the time.
There are many more things that we do in our house to be energy efficient, but I won’t bore you. Just look at your everyday actions and ask yourself if you could be doing it in a more energy efficient way.
Sure, living without air conditioning here is a little uncomfortable sometimes. But if it means putting money into our investments and sweating a little versus staying indoors, being cool and rolling pennies to try to make ends meet, we choose to sweat. We like our money and want to keep it rather than hand it over by the fistful to CUC.
Yes, we are treehuggers.
Melissa Highfill
Papago, Saipan
On May 4, you ran an opinion column written by Ed Stephens, Jr. regarding "Energy Costs". In the column, Mr. Stephens writes that he "cannot fathom a Saipan house that uses less than 1,500 kWh (kilowatt hours) of electricity per month." It is a reality and can be done-our home is proof. On average we use approximately 250 kWh per month. Yes, only 250. We live in an "un-insulated concrete sweatbox" house, not a condo or an apartment. We live here full time. In the last six months, our highest bill was $82, and that includes the charge for unmetered water. How do we do it?
- Don’t run the air conditioners. Get a few fans and open up the windows.
- Wash full loads of laundry. Use cold water to wash your laundry.
- Run a few clothes lines instead of using the dryer.
- Turn your water heater to the lowest setting and when you go on vacation, turn it off. Why heat water when you aren’t going to be using it?
- Replace your standard light bulbs with CFL bulbs. We use them in all of our light fixtures.
- Shut lights off in the rooms that you aren’t in.
- Don’t leave outside lights on.
- Plug your entertainment system (TV, DVD, VCR, etc.) into a surge protector bar that has an off/on switch. When you want to use it, flip the switch to on, when you are done, flip the switch to off. All of these components have an internal clock that draws a small amount of electricity even when not in use. Do the same in the kitchen with the microwave and radio. We also use one for our computer.
- If you have ceiling fans, use them. If you don’t, consider installing them.
- When buying new appliances, choose Energy Star products if available. We put our Energy Star TV in our living room even though it is smaller because that is where we watch TV 90 percent of the time.
There are many more things that we do in our house to be energy efficient, but I won’t bore you. Just look at your everyday actions and ask yourself if you could be doing it in a more energy efficient way.
Sure, living without air conditioning here is a little uncomfortable sometimes. But if it means putting money into our investments and sweating a little versus staying indoors, being cool and rolling pennies to try to make ends meet, we choose to sweat. We like our money and want to keep it rather than hand it over by the fistful to CUC.
Yes, we are treehuggers.
Melissa Highfill
Papago, Saipan
Monday, January 29, 2007
It's true
Saipan Tribune, Tuesday, January 23, 2007
The beauty of being unified
I am the president of MOVER and the Friends of the Mariana Islands but today I am writing as a concerned member of the CNMI community. The CNMI is going through a time of political and social convulsions not known here since the formation of the Commonwealth. While many causes of our convulsions have been generated by external forces (airline/tourist reductions, garment industry free trade agreements and a Democrat-controlled Congress) we are not powerless to determine our own futures.
Amid the doom and gloom we should remember that we have examples of the community and its people working together on projects for the good of out islands. They do this without either personal gain or political agendas being part of the projects! In particular, my personal experience with the Beautify CNMI! coalition has demonstrated how people representing all parts of the CNMI community can work together despite their differences in origin and social status. I have seen how business leaders, politicians, government officials, people of local descent, people from the U.S. and non-resident workers give their time and energy to literally work side-by-side on projects that clean up and beautify the CNMI. These project touch all people in the Commonwealth in subtle ways, for even to just drive by areas of Saipan that have been cleaned or beautified must touch people on at least a subconscious level.
The people of the Commonwealth have different opinions and hope for different outcomes on the divisive issues of immigration control, minimum wage changes and other economic and social struggles; even so we should not forget how at times literally thousands of PEOPLE who live here can come together, work
together and rejoice together as their collective efforts do in fact beautify the Island of Saipan and the lives of all those who live or visit our Islands.
Marites A. Castillo
MOVER president
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