Saipan Tribune, Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Utah Boys Scouts' help sought for tree plantingBy Marconi CalindasA delegation of Boy Scouts of America from Utah's Trapper Trails Council, who are currently conducting a one-week summer camp for CNMI Boy Scouts, have been asked to help in a tree planting activities this week.
Beautify CNMI representative Angelo Villagomez went to the Camp Lao Lao Bay in San Vicente yesterday to ask the group to participate in the upcoming tree planting activity on Thursday where over 175 seedlings will be planted across the island.
Trapper Trails Council crew adviser David Stone said he and his 16 members would be glad to help, together with 42 other Boy Scouts from the CNMI, as part of the camp's service projects. However, they are asking the community to help them with a means of transportation that could carry at least 60 individuals. The visiting group, composed of 12 Boy Scouts and a female scout, flew in from Palau Saturday morning.
Stone and four adults are spearheading the Camp Lao Lao Bay since Monday. The camp attracted at least 42 young boys from the CNMI, with ages ranging from 11 to 18. The scouts will be camping out for one week and will be engaged in activities aligned with the Boy Scouts' mission and vision.
"We had an opening camp fire night on Monday and we will end the activity with the Friday camp fire night, inviting parents of the boys," said Stone.
Friday's activities will include presentations from the Boy Scouts to show what they have done for the week.
Stone and the visiting scouts said the children from the CNMI are quick to learn and fun to work with. Stone is hoping that the children would absorb values that would help them become better citizens, fathers and husbands in the future.
He said the CNMI used to have camps attended by more than 100 Boy Scouts. "We hope to see that again in the future," said Stone.
Yesterday's activities included basic archery lessons, leaf weaving and other group activities related to daily survival.
FEMALE SCOUT
The Trapper Trails Council brought in the only female scout in the team, Angela Porter, 18. Porter said she joined the troop because there aren't many girl scouts back in her hometown, Ogden, Utah. She said she has been enjoying her experience both in Palau and on Saipan.
The other Boy Scouts with her are Mike Hyer, Aaron Semadeni, Kyle Loveridge, Phillip Stone, Jared Stone, Josiah Rupp, Cameron Porter, BJ Williams, Spencer Hall, Nik Stay and Scott Major. Assistant advisers include Dr. Charles Bean, Darrell Rupp, Rick Porter, Philip Eborn and local BSA executive Neil Rasmussen.
Aloha Council and CNMI Scout master Al Cabael also lent a hand in the camp since yesterday. The camp is still open to interested boys. Interested parents can still drive their boys to the Camp Lao Lao Bay in San Vicente for registration.
46 Volunteers joined Beautify CNMI and DEQ for a beach cleanup this morning. The volunteers came from Northern Marianas College, the Carolinian Affairs Office, the Board of Parole, and the Church of Latter Day Saints.
Super volunteers Kyle Kaipat, Josiah Lizama, Juanita Fajardo, Adam Sablan, and Captain Carl Brachear pose after the planting. They have participated in every single one of our plantings so far. We will plant trees on the hill in the background in two weeks. That planting should finish up the Lao Lao project until next rainy season.
Tim Lang of CRM, Jeremy Shaw of DEQ, and Ben Cepeda and James Babauta of CNMI Forestry led the planting (with a little help from me). We drove the 146 saplings and 400 putting seeds to the start of the trail leading to the revegetation site and the volunteers and staff carried them up to the top of the mountain.
We've already planted a considerable number of trees (575!), so we had to carry the trees further into the revegeation site. We had to form and reform a human chain three times to get the trees to where we wanted to plant them. Another factor making this planting more difficult was the size of the saplings. Many were bigger than previous saplings. Some of them were in 3 gallon bags. Do you know how heavy 3 gallons of soil is?
Then here are the obligatory pictures of volunteers putting trees into the ground:
During the planting, Adam said to his Mom, "look, a grenade!"
The fighting on Saipan stopped on July 9, 1944. This grenade has been sitting on the Lao Lao hillside for over 62 years. Great find, Adam!
Once again the volunteers from MOVER did an amazing job with the planting. This was the sixth consecutive week of plantings for them. Thank you, MOVER!
As we posed for our post-planting picture, a group of about 15 kids showed up at the revegeation site. They were on a hike being led by one of the teachers that participated in the Outdoor Classroom Experience with Koblerville Elementary School. I was really happy to see her bringing more kids up there. That means that our program is actually working!
46 community volunteers, with coconuts, gloves, and shovels in hand, showed up at the 13 Fisherman Memorial at 8 AM to participate in the planting. About half of the volunteers were members of MOVER, the community group that helped us plant our first flame trees only one month ago. The other half were other concerned citizens.
In addition to the MOVER volunteers, we had help from Emily Gironda, Diana Felix, Juanita Fajardo, Adam Sablan, Zachary Sablan, Sid Cabrera, Kyle Kaipat, Dennis Cabrera, Joe Taijeron, EJ Lee, Carl Brachear, Cinta Kaipat, Josiah Lizama, AJ Lizama, Franklin Lizama, Brandon Lieto, Glen Hunter, and Tina Sablan.
Here we are planting tree number 1000. When it came time to put the sapling in the ground, every volunteer took a fistful of soil and threw it in the hole. That was Cinta's idea. Great idea, Cinta!
