Shark Hope

You will find a familiar Beautify CNMI face in this documentary about shark conservation in Fiji.

Beautify International

First posted on The Saipan Blog.

Mom asked me to help out with Catie's girl scout meeting today. She said something like, "We're planting trees and I want you to make sure we're doing it right." I never turn down the opportunity to dig some holes, so I donned my Beautify CNMI 2nd Anniversary shirt and we drove out to Lake Highland Preparatory School.

Catie's girl scout troop is based at her school and the meetings are in her 4th grade classroom. Mom and another parent are the den mothers. They fed the girls apples, cheese, and Oreos and then talked with them about the planting by telling them what plants they would be planting and what benefits they would have to the environment.

Then it was time to march from the classroom down to the lake where we were going to plant our plants.

Each of the girls carried a plant while Mom directed traffic.

The lake is right behind the school and we just had to walk a short way. The lake is fenced off and the girls were very excited to be going "beyond the locked gate."

I was going to make "Beyond the Locked Gate" the title of this post but decided to go with Beautify International to take the focus off the girls and put it back on me. This is my blog, after all.

:)

We dug our nine holes right along the shore of the lake. The soil was very rich and wet, not rocky and hard like on Saipan. Even so, the 60 lbs girls needed some help from the 210 lbs fat boy wearing the blue shirt.

The edge of lake is kind of smelly and some of the girls didn't like it. Some of the girls didn't mind the smell and the mud, while a few others wanted to wash their hands immediately after touching the ground.

When Catie bent over to transfer her plant to the ground she found a worm. Catie doesn't like worms.

I pulled the worm out and showed it to the rest of the girls. I would say they were cautiously interested.

A big thanks to the girl scouts of Lake Highland for letting me participate in their planting and lake cleanup. I enjoyed every moment.

And how about if we finish this post with some birds:

Farewell for Angelo

ANGELO Villagomez (aka KungFu Panda, to some of us) is departing for a while to earn himself a few more smarts, to broaden his experiences even further, and to spend some time closer to immediate family.

Many, many people have been touched in some way or another by Angelo's presence these last four years in Saipan and, to listen to so many people in the community, it is quite obvious that he and his infectious spirit will be missed.

The count down is on and Angelo is making the most of everyday while also packing boxes and selling off his unpackable stuff.

If you have time and if you are interested, please feel free to join in a very informal, no-host send off:

When: Wednesday, January 6th
Time: 7:30p (he will be arriving after the sunset cruise)
Where: Remingtons in Garapan, Saipan

If you know someone who might want to know about this event, please pass this information on!

Thank you

Friday was an amazing day. Thank you. Thousands of people came together for a single cause: a more beautiful Saipan. Young and old, citizen and non-citizen, local and non-local, government workers and business owners volunteered a few hours of their time to pick up the trash littering our beautiful island. Later this week the islands of Tinian and Rota will do the same. Again, Thank you.

Our results were staggering. The final numbers are still being tallied, but our preliminary count shows 4040 volunteers, 55 volunteer groups and 48 adopted sites on Saipan, and 12,960 lbs of trash removed from our streets, beaches, and parks.

The collaboration between groups to make this island wide cleanup a success was enormous. Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and Rotary Club of Saipan handled most of the pre-cleanup coordination and sign-ups. Marianas Visitors Authority, Marianas Tourism Education Council, McDonald’s, and the Kramis Family provided funds for supplies and prizes. On the day of the cleanup DEQ, Bureau of Environmental Health, and Division of Parks and Recreation coordinated all of the trash pickup. Additionally there were 55 volunteer group coordinators, who ensured that their adopted site had rubber gloves, trash bags, and most importantly, volunteers.

In every way, from the total number of volunteers, to the number of participating groups, to the amount of litter removed, this year’s cleanup was bigger than anything the Beautify CNMI coalition has ever accomplished.

Furthermore, if the success of this cleanup has anything to teach us, it is that the government does not have the sole responsibility of solving our social problems, nor do they hold a monopoly on having the ability to fix them. We just showed that with a slight change in ethic and a small amount of effort on everyone’s part we can move mountains, in this case a 6.5 ton mountain of cans, bottles, and cigarette butts.

Unfortunately, Saipan’s streets and beaches will be covered in litter by the end of the week. Over the weekend hundreds of people went to the beach and left their trash, cigarette butts and cans are still being thrown out of cars, and homestead residents continue to dump their trash in the jungle.

Instead of being discouraged by this realization, I ask all of you to become reenergized. Change happens. The success of Beautify CNMI over the last three years and this latest cleanup are proof of that. Let us redouble our efforts to turn the Marianas into the cleanest, safest islands in the Pacific.

I encourage the volunteer groups that participated in this cleanup to adopt their spot for the next 12 months. Become the steward of that road, beach, or park for the next year.

I also encourage the eight government agencies charged with enforcing our litter laws to start making examples of some of the worst litter offenders. Hand out a few of those $500 tickets to businesses not properly storing their garbage or to residents dumping their trash illegally.

Finally, I encourage our donors to continue supporting our cleanup efforts. We cannot paint over graffiti if we do not have paint and we cannot pick up litter if we do not have garbage bags.

Volunteers, government policy, and business support are the three legs on which Beautify CNMI stands. The continued involvement of all three will improve the quality of life for the people that live here and make us a more desirable tourism destination.

Again, thank you to all who have supported the concept of Beautify CNMI over the last three years and to everyone who participated in this historic island wide cleanup. I look forward to many more years of collaboration and hard work as we move towards a more perfect Commonwealth.

Angelo Villagomez
Beautify CNMI

THANK YOU! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

I CAN'T thank everyone enough! A MILLION THANKS to all of you who came out yesterday and will come out again today to participate in the 2009 Island-wide Cleanup in observance of this year's Environmental Awareness Month. The number of participants this year shattered the number we established almost three years ago with the 2006 Island-wide Cleanup called "1020 on 10/20" (Where we asked for at least 1,020 volunteers to participate in the Island-wide Cleanup on October 20, 2006, but got 3,380 volunteers instead!) This year, well over 4,000 volunteers (4,040 yesterday morning and counting!) from government, private, and the community set aside whatever they were going to do yesterday to collectively do one GREAT thing for our community -- BEAUTIFY IT and walk right into history while at it!

WAY TO BEAUTIFY CNMI!

Angelo Villagomez (of Beautify CNMI!, the Rotary Club, Pew Environmental Group, Friends of the Monument, and MINA)and Joe Kaipat of DEQ did an outstanding job of organizing this massively successful cleanup.

Thanks to our wonderful sponsors: The Rotary Club, DEQ, MVA, NTT Docomo, McDonald's, Ron & Nancy Kramis, PDM Promoters, Marianas Tourism Education Council, and Beautify CNMI!

Oh, and by the way, THANKS to Bank of Guam and Shirley's for donating the money to build our Beautify CNMI! trailer and THANKS to FMI for building it. Joe and the DEQ gang put the trailer to good full use during the cleanup!

And one final thought -- Can you all think of a better way to showcase our beautiful islands to our many friends and visitors who will be arriving by sea and air to attend our Flame Tree Arts Festival? Please...Let's keep our islands clean and beautiful. Let's continue to Beautify CNMI!

Cinta M. Kaipat
Beautify CNMI!

Thank You NTT Docomo for Donating this Map

Thanks to Beautify CNMI! partner and 2009 Island-Wide Cleanup Sponsor NTT Dococo for this wonderful map which shows the sites adopted by various private businesses, schools, government agencies, families, et al. to clean today and, we hope, in the future.

If anyone wants to take a look at this map, stop by DEQ and ask for Joe Kaipat.

Joe Kaipat of DEQ, who co-organized this event with Angelo Villagomez, poses with former Congressman Absalon Waki, Jr. of NTT Docomo, one of the sponsors of this year's Island-wide Cleanup and donor of the map.Joe and Waki posing ala Vanna White. :D

Cleanup day is almost here

Just a few more hours before the troops hit the ground. I submitted the following press release, hopefully in time for Friday's papers. Our tally going into tomorrow is 4018 volunteers.

Go us!

Nearly 4000 ready to Beautify CNMI

4000 volunteers are set to hit the streets and beaches of Saipan tomorrow in what is expected to be the largest island-wide cleanup in Micronesian history.

“The support the community is showing us has been tremendous,” explained co-organizer Angelo Villagomez of Pew Environment Group. “We have businesses, government agencies, schools, and even families registered to participate.”

As of Thursday afternoon, 51 volunteer groups had adopted 48 sites around Saipan. According to Beautify CNMI volunteer Ken Kramer, “The cleanup we organized in 2006 had 32 volunteer groups. This one is nearly double the size.”

Deputy Secretary of Labor and Beautify CNMI founder Cinta Kaipat had a reminder for all participants, “Don’t forget to take before, during, and after pictures of your cleanups. We will post these on the Beautify CNMI blog and the two groups with the largest number of volunteers and most trash collected will win $100 each. We’ll use the photos submitted to determine the winners.”

Division of Environmental Quality, Rotary Club of Saipan, Marianas Visitors Authority (MVA), and Marianas Tourism Education Council are the co-organizers of the island-wide cleanup. Supplies were donated by MVA and McDonald’s.

For more information on the how to participate in the cleanup, contact Joe Kaipat at 664-8500 or Angelo Villagomez via Email at angelovillagomez@gmail.com. A list of all participants can be found by visiting http://beautifycnmi.blogspot.com.

Letters to the Editor
Monday, April 06, 2009

Please participate in this month's islandwide cleanup

Two and one half years ago, the Beautify CNMI campaign put together an event called “1020 on 10/20.” We challenged 1,020 people to spend a few hours on October 20 doing something to make these islands a better place to live and visit. Over 3,380 locals, contract workers, government workers, business owners, elected officials, and students heeded the call and spent the morning of Oct. 20 picking up litter off roads and beaches, painting over graffiti, and planting trees. Our collective efforts were impressive.

If my records are to be believed, that year the Coastal Resources Management Office teamed up with the Mariana Islands Nature Alliance to remove 380 lbs of trash from Tank Beach. The students at Gregorio T. Camacho Elementary removed 500 lbs of trash from the beach behind their school. The Division of Environmental Quality cleaned up the area north of the 13 Fishermen Memorial and planted several dozen coconut trees. They removed 280 lbs of trash. All told over 9,120 lbs of litter were removed from the 32 cleanup sites adopted in 2006.

A second islandwide cleanup is being planned for April 17, 2009, as part of the Commonwealth's celebration of Earth Month. The concept for this event is similar to what we did with “1020 on 10/20.” We are asking community members, business owners, and government agencies to spend up to two hours enhancing the areas around their homes, businesses, and offices.

Several organizations are helping us organize this cleanup. The Rotary Club of Saipan, Marianas Tourism Education Council, and Division of Environmental Quality are the lead coordinators. The Marianas Visitors Authority is donating $1,500 for the purchase of plastic bags, rubber gloves, and paint supplies. They will be available for pickup at DEQ later this week. DEQ has also pledged to use their trucks and staff to pick up and transfer all garbage to the Lower Base transfer station, which Department of Public Works will be keeping open late to accommodate us.

Additionally, Governor Fitial has agreed to allow all Executive Branch agencies to participate in this islandwide cleanup during working hours. More information on their participation should be forthcoming from the Governor's Office and the Division of Environmental Quality.

I humbly invite you to join us in this year's islandwide cleanup. You can adopt a spot, either your favorite beach, a tourist attraction, or the road in front of your home, business, or office, or you can join another group at their cleanup. A list of all of this year's adopted spots can be found at http://beautifycnmi.blogspot.com. Simply contact the coordinator for that location and tell them you want to join.

If you would like to adopt a spot this year, please call me at 285-6462 or Joe Kaipat at DEQ at 664-8500 or email me at angelovillagomez@gmail.com. I will send you the one-page sign up sheet and help you with your adopted spot's logistics.

These islands are our home and if we don't take care of it, nobody else is going to do it for us. The Beautify CNMI campaign has always belonged to the entire community. I will often say, “Everyone is a member of Beautify CNMI, even if they don't know it yet.” This campaign has always been one of the people and by the people. When we didn't have money for garbage bags, somebody has always donated them. When we needed volunteers, somebody has always given us their time. With this cleanup, we are asking for your help one more time.

This cleanup comes right around the time of the third anniversary of Beautify CNMI and I'm looking forward to this event launching us into a successful fourth year. Again, I humbly ask you to participate in this year's islandwide cleanup. Participate with your family, your co-workers, or your classmates, but please participate.

Angelo O’Connor Villagomez
Volunteer, Beautify CNMI

Former First Lady Thanks Friends of the Monument

Monumental moment: Friends of the Monument's Agnes McPhetres presented then-First Lady Laura Bush with Mariana Trench t-shirts on the day the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument was created by then-President George W. Bush.

SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands – Former First Lady Laura Bush recently wrote to the Friends of the Monument thanking them for their role in supporting the creation of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument.

The letter, embossed with the official White House seal reads, “We are pleased that you joined us at the White House for the signing of the proclamation to create the Pacific Marine National Monuments. Your gifts will always remind us of your support throughout the process that led this special occasion.”

Friends of the Monument’s Agnes M. McPhetres presented then-first lady Bush with two orange Mariana Trench Monument t-shirts after the monument declaration signing in Washington, DC on January 6, 2009.

The former first lady added, “Conservation and protection of our ocean resources is vitally important to our nation and the world. I am proud of the accomplishments of my husband’s Administration to protect America’s oceans. He joins me in sending best wishes to your organization for future success in advancing marine conservation.”

The letter from the former first lady included an autographed photo of her and former President George W. Bush.
Friends of the Monument’s Angelo O. Villagomez said of the letter, “I am really proud of our people. We are showing the world how local actions can have global consequences. Even the former President of the United States and his first lady know about our work here.”

The Friends of the Monument were the main proponents for a marine monument in the Marianas. When local elected leaders were not receptive to the idea of a marine monument, the Friends started a petition drive and collected over 6000 signatures from local residents. They also gained endorsements from the business community and prominent community leaders.

The islands’ political establishment ultimately supported the monument. According to a statement issued by Governor Benigno R Fitial on the day of the designation, “I welcome President Bush's historic announcement establishing the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument…Over the past few months, I have been actively engaged in discussions with the White House Council on Environmental Quality regarding the objectives and scope of the proposed monument. I have been joined in these discussions by President Pete Reyes of the Commonwealth Senate and Speaker Arnold Palacios of the Commonwealth House of Representatives.”

When asked about what he was going to do with the letter, Friends of the Monument’s Ignacio V. Cabrera said, “I’m going to hang it on my wall at home so that I can remember all we have accomplished.”

Silly grin: Friends of the Monument's Angelo Villagomez and the letter from Laura Bush.

Friends of the Monument officers Agnes M. McPhetres, Ignacio V. Cabrera, and Angelo O. Villagomez were on hand to witness the historic monument declaration this past January.

The Friends of the Monument formed in the Spring of 2008 to express the voice of the local community and consists of a cross-section of indigenous and resident people of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands who are dedicated to the conservation, preservation and protection of marine flora, fauna and geological features of the oceans; and the creation and proper management of a Marianas Trench Marine National Monument.

More information on the Friends of the Monument and the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument can be found at http://marianamonument.blogspot.com.

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!

120 on 10/20 IS TODAY!!!!

Caption: Cinta Kaipat places a mwaar on the head of CEQ chairman James Connaughton while 65 other Friends of the Monument members look on. Inset, James Connaughton greets the line of Monument supporters at the entrance to the Hyatt Regency Saipan yesterday afternoon. (Contributed Photos)


Don't forget to wear your Orange t-shirts and come on out to the Hibiscus Hall, Fiesta Resort, for the 5:30 p.m. workshop meeting today! Your presence matters!

Angelo has a great post and pictures of the warm welcome reception we gave the White House officials who arrived at the Hyatt yesterday. Visit The Saipan Blog - Saipan, CNMI's most popular blog since ever since
http://www.thesaipanblogger.com

While you're at it, visit the other blogs that Angelo contributes to --

--
Angelo O'Connor Villagomez

Saipan Coordinator - Ocean Legacy
PMB 360 BOX 10001
Saipan, MP 96950

(670) 234 2665
http://www.globaloceanlegacy.org

Volunteer
Beautify CNMI
(670) 285-6462
http://www.beautifycnmi.com

The Beautify CNMI "Beauty Virus" Is Alive And Well

Thanks to Aya-san and Willy-san of Isa CNMI for keeping the Beautify CNMI "Beauty Virus" alive and well!

Gus and I got our niece and nephews together and headed up to the Last Command Post in Marpi, Saipan, this bright Sunday morning for a cleanup with Isa CNMI and 200 visitors from Japan. They are members of the Nenpoushinkyou group in Japan. They say they have 800,000 members. WOW!

I put together this slide show of the day's events. The first 100 or so pictures were taken of the cleanup.

The last pictures are of the first blooming flame tree of the group we planted on lower Dandan Road (the road leading up to Dandan from the Welcome/Adios Sign). We planted these trees last year, and now one of them is already blooming!

The last pictures are of the road sign on Tun Kiyoshi Road.

Thanks to everyone who pitched in to help. Isa CNMI's Aya-san and Willy-san Matsumoto led the effort with Beautify CNMI and her coalition partners MVA, PDI, Tasi Tours, RC&D, PEW, and community members. In addition to Gus and I and our niece Sheena Saures and nephews Peter Saures, Franklin, Josiah and Jun Lizama, other community members who were there included Juanita Fajardo and her niece Breana and nephew Vince.

Once, again, thanks to everyone for a fine job! Arigato-gozaimasu!

FMI gets Earth Team Volunteer award

Marites Aquino Castillo, president/chairwomen of the volunteer group known as Friends of the Mariana Islands (FMI), and Angelo O'Connor Villagomez were recently presented the Earth Team Volunteer Award and Certificates for their environmental efforts.

Castillo received two awards, one for herself and the other one for the FMI Group's activities.

Villagomez's's genius is as a grass roots organizer, while Castillo's Group, the FMI, provided the muscle and backbone for the Earth Team Volunteer activities with over 6,000 volunteer hours so far in 2008.

Castillo and the FMI Group performed miracles by volunteering to clean up the roads and beaches of Saipan. Their goal is to maintain the environment for the benefit of everyone in the CNMI. Their motto is: “Do it whole heartedly and expect nothing in return except from your self.”

According to Castillo, the FMI group began consistently cleaning up of roads and beaches in June 2006. Since then they have cleaned up Lau Lau Beach every third Sunday of the month, which now amounts to 23 consecutive months of activity.

During these same months on every second Sunday they were also cleaning up ISA Drive Rd. from the Saipan Botanical Gardens to the stoplight Intersection that leads to Northern Marianas Colleges.

The FMI has also worked other weekends beautifying other parts of Saipan.

When asked, “How can your group possibly do this much work?” Castillo replied: “The Friends of the Mariana Islands Earth Team Volunteers get a great feeling of pride for the work they do for the environment of Saipan.”

She cited the help of other individuals and groups who have contributed to FMI's cause. “Thanks to former Rep. Jacinta M. Kaipat, Angelo, and Mr. Ken [Kramer] for their motivation and assistance in helping us keep Saipan beautiful.”

“I hope that people will know, appreciate, and remember that it was and will be the hard work of Friends of the Mariana Islands Earth Team Volunteers that helps make Saipan a cleaner and more beautiful place to live! Let's all work together and keep this island even more beautiful!”

Jake Shimabukuro plants a Flame Tree

Yesterday's Beautify CNMI anniversary concert with Jake Shimabukuro was an all day affair. The concert took up the entire evening, but even before that we were setting up and going on the radio to promote the show.

We even took some time to plant a tree with Jake.

Imagine the New Garapan

The Garapan Tourist District should be the premier real estate in Saipan. Sandwiched between the Saipan Lagoon and a National Park, with easy walking access to several hotels, an elementary school, health clubs, restaurants, bars, shopping centers, and a three mile long walking path fronting the ocean, it should be the perfect place to raise a family.

But it’s not.

It’s the manky armpit of our once beautiful island.

In his weekly column in the Saipan Tribune, Bruce Bateman recently recounted a conversation we had concerning Garapan. We were discussing ways to make Garapan more palatable for families and tourists alike and I offered three simple solutions that would lead to a "new" Garapan. I suggested that we move prostitution out of Garapan, move several government offices into Garapan, and entice young professionals to make Garapan their residence.

I’d say close your eyes and try to imagine my vision, but then you’d have a really hard time reading this...but imagine what living in Garapan could be like:

Imagine if you are a young professional with a small one- or two-bedroom apartment on the third floor of one of the buildings in the "new" Garapan. You share it with your husband and your daughter.

You could wake up first thing in the morning and go for a six-mile run along the Saipan Bike path, then jog over to Club Elan for some weightlifting or yoga.

Fresh from a shower at the spa, you walk over to one of the Chinese restaurants and have breakfast for $4.

You walk back to the apartment to help your husband get your daughter ready for school. Your daughter is pretty good in the morning and can get herself ready; it’s your husband who really needs the help getting out the door.

Your daughter likes you to walk her to school, which is right across the street, so you take her over, kiss her goodbye, wish her luck on her test, and then go to work.

You work at MVA, which along with the Saipan Mayor’s office and several other government entities are now located in Garapan. Instead of driving, you walk over to work, strolling through the brand new Visitor’s Center on your way to your desk.

Around noon one of your coworkers asks if you want Japanese, Korean or Thai for lunch. You respond with, "How about Italian?" Your husband, who works for the Mayor, walks over to meet you.

When your daughter gets out of school, you are able to take a 15-minute break to pick her up. You take her home, then she goes out to play with her friends. They ride bikes through the National Park and then go swimming.

After work, some of your coworkers want to go for some happy hour drinks, but you promised your daughter you’d take her to the Thursday street market.

Alright, open your eyes.

In my vision, almost everything except for the government offices being located in Garapan is already true. It already exists. We can do this. If we can move the prostitution out, move several government offices including MVA in, and get young professionals to live here, we can save Garapan.

Beautify CNMI has done a lot of work in the last two years to clean up Garapan, with our biggest support coming from Rep. Waki, Rep. Kaipat, Friends of the Mariana Islands, Kinpachi Restaurant, Hyatt, and Fiesta Resort. There is still a lot of work to be done, so if you are interested in helping, please attend 2008’s first Beautify CNMI meeting. We meet on Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008, at 7pm at Cafe at the Park in Garapan.

I hope to see you there.

Angelo Villagomez
Executive Director
MINA

Marines, Garapan Elementary Students and Others Beautify Garapan Tourist District

We were scheduled to have a session last Friday, so I couldn't join the Beautify CNMI event that the Saipan Chamber of Commerce and Angelo Villagomez set up. They managed to pair 100 visiting marines with students from Garapan Elementary School. Thanks to Principal Boni Gomez for her usual 100% support of Beautify CNMI events!
I checked in on the crew on my way up to the Hill and arrived just in time to see Principal Boni lead her charge to the American Memorial Park parking lot.Here we are prepping the kids before the marines arrived. She said a few words.... . .and then I said a few words......and then I thanked them and wished them a great day and went on to the session. Again, thanks to the Marines, Principal Gomez and the students and faculty of GES who participated in the cleanup, and all the participants for the awesome job they did cleaning up the Garapan Tourist District. Thanks, Angelo, for anchoring the event!

Rep. Cinta Kaipat
www.cnmiblog.com

Beautifying With Nihon University

Aya-san and Willy-san Matsumoto invited me and other Beautify CNMI! partners to join Isa-CNMI and Nihon University students in a beach cleanup at Aquarius Beach Hotel. I was there with my staff, Dennis Cabrera, Angelo Villagomez of RC&D and MINA, and FMI President Marites Castillo at 7 a.m.
We armed ourselves with gloves and trash bags and fanned out.
Honda-san (far right) of ISA-CNMI leads a group.
And everyone was off and running.
The group made their way towards the Sugar Dock and then looped around.
We ended up right back where we started. We had a short presentation of gifts.
Aya-san, who is a board member of MINA, presents the group with a MINA t-shirt.
Marites and I presented them with a Beautify CNMI t-shirt.
I presented them with a Beautify CNMI! bag.
And then we took the obligatory group shot and shouted -- 1, 2, 3 -- Beautify CNMI!
There was also time for one last photo. Aya-san Matusumoto, Sensei Koshiro, me, and Marites.

Arigato Gozaimasu! Si Yu'us Ma'ase! Olomwaay! Thank You!

I left the beach at 8:10 and rushed home to get ready for my meeting with the SWAT team who is looking at overhauling our entire workfrorce training system. The meeting started at 9 a.m.

I arrived there about 9:10, just in time for the slide presentation of HB 15-38, my labor reform bill. The presentation went well; it was well received.

Then I had to leave at 11:15 to head up to the Hachiman Jinja for a luncheon meeting. The Nihon University students met us there, as seen in the photos below.

Rep. Cinta Kaipat
www.cnmiblog.com

Lunch At The Hachiman Jinja With Nihon University

The rain poured really hard just as the students got to the Hachiman Jinja. Even though I was there earlier, I still got caught in the rain. But what a delicious lunch our wonderful hosts, the Guerrero family, put on for us! Si Yu'us Ma'ase, Olomwaay, Thank You and Arigato Gozaimasu!
Nihon University students with our hosts, Mr. & Mrs. Guerrero-san, myself, Governor Ben Fitial, and Angelo Villagomez.
Everyone huddled together to wait for the rain to go away so we could visit the Hachiman Jinja. It's a good thing I visited the Jinja earlier before the rain came. The students ended up visiting in groups.
Oishi! Oishi! Yummy! Yummy!
Our hostess, Mrs. Guerrero-san, Aya Matsumoto-san, me, Kinai Guerrero, and Sensei Koshiro.
Our last group photo with our hosts. Ray and Kinai, two of the Guerrero children (far right, back) join the group for a photo.

Thanks, again!

Rep. Cinta Kaipat
www.cnmiblog.com

Lighthouse Gets Face Lift

Today was a good day. I got to see a bunch of my Beautify family members, some of whom I haven't seen in weeks. We got together to paint over the graffiti on the old lighthouse on Navy Hill. Click here for Angelo's excellent "before" and "after" shots which show some dramatic improvements.

Also click here for Aya-san's excellent post detailing some of the actions that had gone on today.

Bree and Doug Reynolds were there. . .














. . .as were some Student Action for a Viable Environment (SAVE) Club members like Ann, Zoe, Yoshi, et al. This is like a jr. Beautify CNMI! Club. Way to Go Guys!
It was nice to see and joke around with some of the leaders and supervolunteers of Beautify CNMI -- Angelo, Ken Kramer, Tess and the FMI Gang. . .











. . . and, of course, Adam, Juanita and Zack, our favorite supervolunteer family! Adam even brought a friend from San Vicente School!








Aya-san and Willy-san were there as well. . .









. . . and we got to enjoy our oishi bbq lunch with our partner R&C Tour members.

It was also great to see new friends from Aqua Resort join Beautify.

Of course, I had my own crew with me: Gus, AJ, Franklin and Willy Boy.

Thanks for stopping by!

Note: Unfortunately, I didn't see my friend Dr. Dave Khorram and crew earlier or I would've gotten a picture of them and they were too quick for my camera when they stopped by briefly in the afternoon. Sorry, Dave!

Rep. Cinta Kaipat
www.cnmiblog.com