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

Susupe Park Facelift

COME OUT AND HELP HOPWOOD'S S.A.V.E. (Student Action for a Viable Environment) and Hopwood's My WAVE Club, as they paint over graffiti, pick up trash and spruce up Susupe Park.

Saturday
OCTOBER 6, 2007
8:00-2:00 P.M.

Between Saipan Grand and Saipan Community Church.

Bring your paint brushes, trays, rollers, scrapers, and brooms! We also need newspaper or drop cloths.

Hopwood Students Hard At Work

Ninety 8th graders from Team E at Hopwood Junior High School, went on a service learning adventure to the Lighthouse on Friday, September 22, 2007. They were accompanied by 4 of their teachers and several community volunteers. The students helped remove scarlet gourd vines, scraped paint, painted and picked up trash. On Sunday, 6 of the students returned to help with additional scraping and painting. Way to go Team E!!!

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:

BEFORE:
AFTER:
BEFORE:
AFTER:

BEFORE:
AFTER:
BEFORE:
AFTER:
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!

SAVE cleans up Laly 4

Why is the Beach in Chalan Kanoa called Laly 4? Does anyone know where Laly 1, 2, and 3 are located?

Well, whatever the reason, on Saturday morning 20 Hopwood Junior High School Students, 1 LISS student, two teachers, two dogs, and one soccer playing tree hugger cleaned it from Hopwood Junior High School to Sugar Dock.

Most of the litter was trash left over from picnics. We did not find any illegal dumping (this time) and not much washes up on the beach here.

If people would just learn to pick up after themselves we could have a nice clean beach. The adults on this island are lucky that their children are willing to pick up after them.

Thank you, Student Action for a Viable Environment!

Micronesia Challenge on Youtube

Under the guidance of Beautify CNMI Environmental Champion Bree Reynolds, students at Hopwood Junior High School used a problem based approach to learning about the Micronesia Challenge this semester. This video is the final project of one of those students.

Enjoy!

2007 Flame Tree Arts Festival

That's not trash: Beautify CNMI partners promoted recycling at this year's Flame Tree Festival.

The Arts Council graciously donated a tent to Beautify CNMI! at this year's Flame Tree Arts Festival, the largest festival of its kind in Micronesia. Using recycling bins borrowed from Division of Environmental Quality, Beautify CNMI promoted aluminum can and plastic bottle recycling during the four day event.

Student Volunteers: Volunteers from San Vicente Elementary, Koblerville Elementary, and Hopwood Junior High School helped Beautify CNMI man the tent.

Volunteers from Marianas RC&D, Mariana Islands Nature Alliance, Rep. Cinta Kaipat's Office, Hopwood Junior High School, San Vicente Elementary, Koberville Elementary, and Friends of the Mariana Islands helped Beautify CNMI! staff the tent from the opening to the closing cermonies of the festival. Thanks to everyone who helped out!

The Tree Guys: Angelo Villagomez and Ken Kramer of Marianas Resource Conservation & Development Council (RC&D) pose with some of the Adopt-a-Flame Tree trees. RC&D hosted a tree care workshop in January and leads the tree planting activities of Beautify CNMI.

The Flame Tree Festival was the perfect opportunity for Beautify CNMI! to kick off the Adopt-a-Flame Tree program. Beautify CNMI! partner Marianas RC&D planted Flame Trees along Beach Road last year, hosted a tree care workshop for CUC, DPW, and Parks & Recreation earlier this year, and plans to continue the replacement of the missing and/or dying trees along Beach Road. At this year's festival 13 Flame Trees were adopted. They will be planted a the onset of the rainy season.

The cost to adopt a Flame Tree is $20. If you or your business would be interested in adopting one or several trees, please contact Angelo Villagomez.

Super Volunteers: (right to left) Angelo Villagomez, Susan Macario, Jerry Tan, and Cinta Kaipat pose for a photo.

We also sold T-shirts, buttons, stickers, and MINA annual memberships. In total we raised $748. These funds will support Beautify CNMI! programs in the upcoming year. Tan Holding's Shirley's Coffee Shop donated $260. They purchased three Adopt-a-Flame Trees, a MINA corporate membership, and donated $100 towards the purchase of a trash trailer for our cleanups! Thank you Shirleys!

Earth Team Award Winners: We handed out individual certificates to all of the MOVER members who helped us win an USDA Earth Team Group Award.

In addition to fundraising and recycling, we also had a few meetings. The Animal Welfare Committee met inside the tent on Thursday to discuss the upcoming National Pet Week and Boonie Dog Pet Show. On Sunday we presented MOVER members with their individual certificates for winning the 2006 USDA Earth Team Group Award.

Thanks again to everyone who helped us this weekend!

Recycling at Hopwood

The Hopwood S.A.V.E. Club members have been collecting recyclables from classrooms at school this year. The students recently volunteered their time on a Sunday to come to school and paint barrels for recycling around campus. We are hoping to receive a container soon so the recycled material can be stored and then hauled away by our trash collector.

Even an 8th Grader Can Tell You...

Students at Hopwood have been doing research on a variety of environmental topics for the Micronesia Challenge. This week, they will be turning in their papers. Next quarter they will develop educational projects for the community. One group chose to research seagrass. They set up a simple experiment to demonstrate how sea grass absorbs chemicals from the water. Two test tubes were filled with sea water and one drop of pink food coloring. Sea grass from the lagoon was placed in one of the tubes. The tubes were placed in a sunny window for 2 days.


As you can see from the pictures, the sea grass did indeed soak up the food coloring. I don't want to spoil all their fun or limelight. They will be publishing their report on the Green CNMI blog and if you have a venue for student work ie pictures, articles, etc. let me know by sending an email or posting a comment. My email is uncheesybree@msn.com. Maybe the legislature, hotel owners, tourists and the govenor should do this experiment.

NMDOA and JSTA Cleanup of Obyan Beach

At least 100 volunteers from Japan Saipan Travel Association, Northern Mariana Diving Operators Association, Marianas Visitors Authority, Mariana Islands Nature Alliance, ISA CNMI, Hopwood Junior High School, and Saipan International School woke up early for a cleanup of Obyan Beach on Saturday.

There were so many people at the cleanup that we had to take two group photos (let's see you try to corral over 100 people into a single shot).

Phew, that's a lot of pictures! Here are a few more:

Speak 日本語? Visit ISA CNMI and Ecosaipan.com for more.