Congrats!

PLEASE allow us the opportunity to congratulate Ms. Marites Castillo and her untiring team of volunteers on winning the 2006 USDA Earth Team Group Award and the 2007 Governor’s Beautify CNMI Environmental Steward Award. We appreciate their past service as members of MOVER and now as members of Friends of the Mariana Islands, or FMI.

We have heard that there has been some talk in the community and that there has been some confusion as to the proper recipient of these two awards. USDA and Beautify CNMI! handed over these two awards to the group of individual volunteers from MOVER and FMI who, under Ms. Castillo’s leadership, have volunteered with Marianas Resource Conservation & Development Council and the USDA Earth Team as part of the Beautify CNMI! coalition.

Ms. Castillo and her volunteers have given their time to Beautify CNMI! every weekend for 12 months straight. The three people creating this confusion came to one tree planting event almost a year ago, didn’t help out at the event, and then left after they were prominently featured in a group photo. Do you seriously think we didn’t notice?

Let us be as clear as we can: as the former president of MOVER and the current president of FMI, these two awards belong to Marites Castillo and to the members of MOVER and FMI with whom she has volunteered her time. If you were one of those people, even if you only came to just one event with the intention of only getting your picture taken, I encourage you to tell the world that you were a winner, but the plaques stay with Ms. Castillo.

I hope this clears up any confusion.

ANGELO VILLAGOMEZ
REP. CINTA M. KAIPAT
Beautify CNMI!

Beautify CNMI's Spirit- Contagious!

"Never Doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world; Indeed, its the only thing that ever has" -Margaret Mead.

On Sunday morning, Beautify CNMI and over 100 volunteers rallied together to help clean up the Garapan Tourist District. This was indeed the largest turn out for 2007! My name is Beverly Cabanatan and I am the Women's Ministry team leader for the Saipan Seventh-day Adventist Church. This was my third cleanup with Team BC. The reason that I keep coming back and the reason why I have gotten my church involved is simply because your spirit is contagious! Team BC exhibits unity and extraordinary love for Saipan. It is a powerful feeling to be a part of a community working together for the greater good. I would like to express to Team BC and the community of Saipan that the Saipan SDA Church and School is excited about being involved with Beautify CNMI's projects.









The groups that were represented were: Marianas RC&D, MINA, Kinpachi Restaurant, MOVER, CNMI Power, Saipan International School (SIS), Garapan Elementary School, SDA Church (Women's Ministry and SDA Pathfinders Club) and School, ISA CNMI, Rep. Cinta Kaipat, Staff, and Family, Rep. Absalon Waki, Jr., and Steve Hiney Consulting.

I hope that's everyone. Let me know if I have forgotten anyone.

Mount Tapachou Cleanup

We had our first cleanup of Mount Tapachou this morning! 29 volunteers helped us removed 460 lbs of trash. Most of the trash was on the side of the mountain, just below the lookout. For years people have been throwing paper cranes and beer cans over the side. There were so many beer cans on the side of the mountain that the volunteers couldn't take a SINGLE step without hearing the loud crunch of an aluminum can.

Some of participants this week were MINA, Marianas RC&D, MOVER, Tasi Tours, Mike Tripp Productions, Visitors Channel, Rep. Cinta Kaipat & Family, Church of Latter Day Saints, and Mr. Abe Malae.

It has been a while since somebody removed the cans littering the lookout. Isn't that beer can like 5 years old or older? Isn't that ice tea can from 1973 or something?

Another Busy Weekend (I'm getting tired of saying that...but not really)

Let's see if I can get this all straight:

On Saturday morning we had two cleanups; Pala Potu, MOVER, Rep. Kaipat's office and family, MINA, and RC&D beautified Tun Kioshi Rd while MVA and Red Cross beautified South Lau Lau Beach.

Later that day, while RC&D's Ken Kramer and Angelo Villagomez led a group of NMC college students on a field trip to the Laulau Revegetation Project Site, community volunteers Nina Rivera and Barrett Ristroph led the Kagman High School National Honor Society and other students in a village Trick or Trash Recycling event. The students roamed the streets of Kagman, knocking on doors in search of cans, bottles, glass, newspaper, and cardboard.

The 58 students collected a total of 330 lbs of recyclable material and sold the aluminum cans for $28. They will use the $28 to pay for drinks and maybe food for their next event.

Also on Saturday, Mariana Islands Nature Alliance had a retreat for their board members at Aqua Resort facilitated by The Nature Conservancy. Thank you Aqua Resort for the meeting space! The retreat helped the participants become better board members.

On Sunday, the Pala Potu group continued their beautification of Tun Kioshi Road while MOVER, Rep. Kaipat, ISA CNMI, and others beautified the road connecting the Francisco C. Ada Airport to Coral Ocean Point. They removed 920 lbs of illegally dumped trash.


We continue to draw in new partners. One of the teachers at Saipan International School is encouraging her students to go out and volunteer with us. She helped us recruit our newest volunteers, pictured above. This was their 3rd volunteer event in 8 days with Beautify CNMI!

...and let's not forget Gus Kaipat, our fearless photographer. Gus takes just about every group picture, so he's never in any blog posts. Today Gus gets his own picture.

Our schedule of volunteer events is always available online. Click HERE to view it. If you would like to add your event, please email or call Angelo Villagomez.

This coming Saturday we will be beautifying Mt. Tapachou Road and on Sunday we will be back in the Garapan Tourist District. CNMI POWER will be participating in their first cleanup of the area; they have adopted the area on the other side of Beach Road. Visit our calendar of events for details and contact info.

It's true

Saipan Tribune, Tuesday, January 23, 2007

The beauty of being unified

I am the president of MOVER and the Friends of the Mariana Islands but today I am writing as a concerned member of the CNMI community. The CNMI is going through a time of political and social convulsions not known here since the formation of the Commonwealth. While many causes of our convulsions have been generated by external forces (airline/tourist reductions, garment industry free trade agreements and a Democrat-controlled Congress) we are not powerless to determine our own futures.

Amid the doom and gloom we should remember that we have examples of the community and its people working together on projects for the good of out islands. They do this without either personal gain or political agendas being part of the projects! In particular, my personal experience with the Beautify CNMI! coalition has demonstrated how people representing all parts of the CNMI community can work together despite their differences in origin and social status. I have seen how business leaders, politicians, government officials, people of local descent, people from the U.S. and non-resident workers give their time and energy to literally work side-by-side on projects that clean up and beautify the CNMI. These project touch all people in the Commonwealth in subtle ways, for even to just drive by areas of Saipan that have been cleaned or beautified must touch people on at least a subconscious level.

The people of the Commonwealth have different opinions and hope for different outcomes on the divisive issues of immigration control, minimum wage changes and other economic and social struggles; even so we should not forget how at times literally thousands of PEOPLE who live here can come together, work
together and rejoice together as their collective efforts do in fact beautify the Island of Saipan and the lives of all those who live or visit our Islands.

Marites A. Castillo
MOVER president