Leaving Island-Last Clean Up and Party!!!

The Reynolds Family is leaving January 16th to go back to Washington State.

They are hosting a cleanup at the Lighthouse and going away bbq after on January 13th. We'll start cleaning up around 3 p.m. and will watch the sunset from one of the most spectacular locations on island. We'll need chairs, tables, coolers, food to share, a grill to cook on, candles, and flashlights.

Email Bree at bree.reynolds@gmail.com if you can bring chairs, a couple of tables, a cooler, or a grill.

SAVE Club, WAVE Club and Beautify CNMI Team Up to Beautify Susupe Park

Super science teacher/professor Bree Reynolds brought her Hopwood and NMC students out to Susupe Park Saturday to give Susupe Park some much-needed tender loving care. Student, faculty, and staff members who belong to the SAVE Club, WAVE Club teamed up with other Beautify CNMI! volunteers, such as Rep. Cinta Kaipat's family, and RC&D's Ken Kramer teamed up. Some of us picked up trash while the rest of us pained over ugly gaffiti. We're not finished yet with this huge project, so be on the lookout for future announcements to join us, won't you?

Thanks to everyone who participated.

By the way, I believe the paint we used was part of the paint we purchased to paint the lighouse. The funding for that came from MVA, so thank you, MVA!



Rep. Cinta Kaipat
www.cnmiblog.com

A few more pictures from the Lighthouse

This picture epitomizes the Beautify CNMI! spirit for me. Here is a Chamorro-American, a Caucasian-American, and a Japanese National. One is a student, one is a doctor, and one is a businesswoman. Zach brought his mom, Juanita, and brother, Adam, Allison brought her children, and Aya brought her husband, Willie.

These three families come from different ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds, have children of different ages (Allison has babies, Juanita has middle schoolers, and Aya has college students), but they all spent hours ostensibly doing something that should have been somebody else's job...and they enjoyed every minute of it. How often do you see that happen?

Juanita, Zach, Adam, Aya, and Willie have volunteered several dozen times now (Adam and Juanita are approaching a hundred). They are such regulars at our events that they show up with their own tools. Even when Willie can't make it, he'll pack a special tool kit for Aya:

That is what Beautify CNMI! is all about. People from different walks of life, pooling their resources, and coming together on a regular basis to make this island a better place to live.

This was Allison's first time volunteering with Beautify CNMI! I hope to see her again...and maybe if she becomes a regular, Willie will pack her a special tool kit, too.

Here are a few more pictures from yesterday's painting of the Japanese Lighthouse:

The untiring volunteers of Friends of the Mariana Islands were at the cleanup yesterday. Their leader, President Marites Castillo, was fighting the flu yesterday, but she still managed to show up. They brought tools, water, and food to share with the rest of the volunteers.

Bree Reynolds was also there. This picture belongs to the Blackmail Series:

$125
Bree brought her husband Doug, and several students from Hopwood Junior High School.

Jim Highfill, the Khorrams, Roch from Aqua Resort (volunteering for the first time), Ken Kramer, a group of Japanese tour guides from R&C Tours, Cinta Kaipat, Gus Kaipat and some of the boys were also there.

I'm sure I'm missing someone...and I'm sorry if I forgot to list you! Check out Aya's blog and Cinta's blog to see if they got everybody.

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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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!

Rep. Manny Tenorio & Tenorio Family Adopt Tun Doi Road

Rep. Manny Tenorio, his staff Eddie Tenorio, and other family members adopted Tun Joaquin "Doi" Tenorio Road from the As Lito intersection on down to the Chalan Kanoa entrance. Welcome and Congratulations!Joining this group are Rep. Cinta Kaipat and her staff and Kaipat and Cabrera Families; the ever-reliable and hardworking Friends of the Mariana Islands (FMI) volunteers, led by Ms. Marites Castillo, their president; Mrs. Bree Reynolds, ace science teacher for Hopwood and NMC; and Steve Hiney of Steve Hiney Consultants and his daughter Katie (who just arrived on island. Thanks for joining us, Katie!). I especially enjoyed meeting BJ Tenorio, a young leader, who was my partner in sweeping up and clearing the gutters. I look forward to seeing this young man on many more Beautify CNMI! activities!

On this cleanup, we managed to bushcut, sweep the gutters, clean out the dirt clogging the drainages, shovel the dirt that had piled up, and picked up trash. Kyle, of Rep. Kaipat's Office, made three trips to the transfer station to unload the pick-up loads of trash.

Thanks to Rep. Tenorio for supplying the snacks and drinks and to Beautify CNMI! for donating the trash bags and gloves (courtesy of donation by MVA!). A great job was done by everyone!