A lot of trash

If only the Friends of the Mariana Islands had cleaned up this area on Dandan on the day of the island-wide cleanup. This has to be one of our biggest hauls of trash in a while!

FMI cleans up Dandan with DEQ

Friends of the Mariana Islands, lead by thier President Marites Castillo, assisted the Division of Environmental Quality with a cleanup on Sunday in DanDan along the Saipan International Airport fence.

In just three hours the volunteers collected an entire trailer full of trash. Some people on Saipan are illegally using the Airport as an area to dispose of their household trash. FMI and DEQ turned this illegal dump site back into an area that the DanDan villagers and Commonwealth Ports Authority can be proud to call their own (and that CPA and MVA don't have to be concerned that our arriving tourist might see).

FMI June Schedule

First Sunday of the Month
Dandan at the Airport
Time: 8:00am to 10:00am

2nd Saturday of the month
ISA Drive (from Botanical Garden to Airport Road)
Start at 8:00am it ends up till the volunteer works is all done

2nd Sunday of the month
Garapan Tourist District
Time: 8:00am to 10:00am

3rd Sunday of the month (June 21, 2009)
Father's Day! FMI will be having BBQ at our place

4th Saturday and Sunday of the month
Lau-Lau Beach
Time: 8:00am to 11:00am

FMI Cleanup of Laulau Bay Road in May

FMI Sent over two hours on Sunday cleaning up Lau Lau Road from the Cross-Island intersection down towards the beach. These pictures were taken along the Road down below the where the old restaurant road joins Lau Lau Road. The drainage areas had been used by some people as a dump site. They had dumped their personal or business trash along side the road and then covered the trash with branches and other green items as an attempt to hide the trash. Our Trash warriors could smell (as could anyone using the Road) the trash and found the illegal dump. Anyone with information on the dump please let DPS know as it is illegal.

We will make sure to really wacth this area and to make sure also that no one can get away with this illegal dump!

San Vicente Elementary

The students, teachers, and parents of San Vicente Elementary had their cleanup on Saturday morning. They were joined by Friends of the Mariana Islands, who provided the pictures. Marites Castillo has more photos on the FMI blog.

30 months of cleaning up Garapan

Saipan, (CNMI) – On the first Sunday of every month, Beautify CNMI volunteers show up at the American Memorial Park parking lot at 8 AM for a cleanup of the Garapan tourist district. On a typical morning they will spend 90 minutes cleaning the area and will fill at least two pickup truck beds with garbage found on the streets.

The cleanup on March 1, 2009 marked the 30th consecutive month of volunteers combing the Garapan streets for litter. The volunteer participants this month were the staff from Paseo De Marianas Promoters, members of the Rotary Club of Saipan, and students from local high schools. Friends of the Mariana Islands transferred the trash to the transfer station in Lower Base.

When asked about the cleanup, Saipan Southern High School sophomore Jacquelyn Johanna David said all the litter she found lying on the ground made her “angry.” She added, “I wish people would pick up after themselves and I wish the government would start issuing litter fines.”

The Garapan cleanup is sponsored by Friends of the Mariana Islands and Paseo de Marianas Promoters, Inc. For more information or to volunteer, please contact Angelo Villagomez at (670) 285 6462 or Marites Castillo at (670) 285 8980. The next Beautify CNMI cleanup will take place on Sunday, March 8 on Isa Drive. Volunteers will meet at the Java Joe's parking lot at 8 AM.

Garapan Cleanup

We had a good showing for last week's monthly cleanup of the Garapan Tourist District. Thanks to everyone who pitched in!

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!”

Beautify CNMI!'s Blooming Flame Tree

Although the Flame Tree Arts Festival has come and gone, it's a good thing the blooming flame trees are going to last us for several more months. This is the season in the CNMI, and Saipan in particular, when Mother Nature paints our islands a magnificent red and orange as far as the eye could see.

Angelo has a nice post here about the first flame tree that Beautify CNMI ever planted blooming nicely this year. We first observed this proud moment after one of our lighthouse cleanups last year and I blogged about it here. This is what makes getting out of bed early Saturday morning and toiling under the hot sun worth it.

Thanks Beautify CNMI! volunteers for beautifying the CNMI, indeed.

Speaking of beautifying, thanks to Beautify CNMI! coalition partners DEQ and FMI and others for recycling at the Flame Tree Arts Festival. Thanks to Cecilia Celes and the Arts Council for giving us our same good location again this year.

FMI Schedule for March 2008

First Sunday of the month Cleanup.
Garapan Tourist District -- March 2, 2008
Start at 8:00am to 10:00am

Second Sunday of the month Cleanup.
ISA DRIVE to NMC -- March 9, 2008
Start at 8:00am to 11:00am

Good Friday FMI will be at the Mount Tapotchao doing volunteers.

3rd Sunday of the month Cleanup.
Lao-Lao Beach -- March 16, 2008
Start at 8:00am to 10:00am

Fourth Sunday of the month FMI monthly meeting (03-23-08)
Venue: San Vicente Village FMI Office.
Start at 1:00pm

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

LIFE CYCLE

I was saddened to read in the Tribune last Saturday about one of the old flame trees dying. I posted this message below, but tried to put a positive face on it that our friends in Guam are appreciating the work that Beautify CNMI is doing replacing flame trees on Saipan

*****************


Department of Public Works staff clean up the debris of a large flame tree that fell on the road due to a fungal disease Thursday afternoon in front of Paseo De Marianas Beach Road in Garapan. (Jacqueline Hernandez)

It always saddens me to see one of our beautiful flame trees (or any tree for that matter) fall prey to either man or disease. A friend of mine, Ed Pocaigue, a staff of Speaker Mark Forbes' office in Guam, sent me an e-mail this morning and expressed his appreciation for the work that Beautify CNMI! is doing to replace our flame trees. Thank you for noticing, Ed! I shall pass along your kind words to the Beautify CNMI! family!

Rep. Cinta M. Kaipat
www.cnmiblog.com

**************

The very next day, after the FMI crew and Kaipat gang left the ligthouse, we stopped to on our way home to admire the first blooms ever on one of the first flame trees we planted over a year ago last June. We all felt proud as a peacock! Here is my post on this.

Did you see it?! Did you see it?! One of the very first flame trees that Beautify CNMI! planted along Beach Road over a year ago has bloomed.
I'd remembered to stop and take a picture on our way home from the lighthouse cleanup yesterday and, Boy!, were we thrilled!!!We were so happy, we almost danced around the tree! This is great considering the sad post earlier regarding the old flame trees being infected with a disease and dying.

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

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.