Fiesta Resort & Spa and Saipan Grand Hotel Joins JSTA Cleanup Drive

JSTA (Japan Saipan Travel Association) Clean-up Drive is spearheaded by President, Masanori Takahasi. It’s an annual event done every April, in which Fiesta Resort & Spa and Saipan Grand Hotel have participated each year. Members get together to assist and support the association in keeping our islands clean and beautiful not only for our vacation visitors but also for our community. This year, according to Ed Diaz, MVA teamed up with JSTA by providing t-shirts and water station to all participants.


The cleanup site was from Micro beach to Chamolinian Cultural Village along the beach side and town side including side streets and Paseo de Marianas. All trash bags were collected at the end of the clean-up.
 

Let's give JSTA and member voluteers

a BIG round of applause

for their dedication to helping keep our island clean and beautiful!

MVA and NMDOA join in two clean ups in March

MVA along with the NMDOA did its monthly clean up yesterday, March 31, 2011, at the Lau Lau Beach Dive Spot. Total Trash collected was about 40 lbs of trash in Lau Lau and bush cut the area as well.

Daishi Hiroki, Director of NMDOA (Peace Divers Corp), and NMDOA members also did a recent clean up at the Grotto, where 17 people picked up a total 30lbs of trash.

Thank you to the staff at MVA and NMDOA and its members for taking time out of your schedule to help clean up around Saipan. Our home is a better, more beautiful place for both residents and visitors alike, because of your effort and generosity --- THANK YOU!!!

MVA and NMDOA

Marianas Visitors Authority and Northern Marianas Dive Operators Association teamed up for a cleanup of the Laulau Bay Dive Site. Some of the volunteers aren't shown...because they were underwater!

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!

2007 MVA Financial Report

Marianas Visitors Authority donated $10,000 to Beautify CNMI in 2007. The financial report on how the money was spent can be downloaded here.

Suicide Cliff -- Another Success Story

Suicide Cliff in April 2007, looking peaceful and beautiful.Rep. Cinta Kaipat and Angelo Villagomez checking out the Suicide Cliff tourist site in April 2007.Congratulations! There has been little to no reported incidents of smash and grab at Suicide Cliff as of April 2007, when the above pictures were taken! This wasn't always the case.

In mid-November 2006, the papers reported on the latest incident of smash and grab at this popular tourist site. In this particular incident, it happened when ISA-CNMI and Beautify CNMI! volunteers were at Suicide Cliff beautifying the monuments and area. The public outcry didn't fall on deaf ears.

At the end of November, MVA invited Beautify CNMI! and other government agencies to team up to address the problem. The solution was to thin out the tangan tangan forests to take away the thieves' hiding places. You can read Angelo's post on this here by scrolling to the post entitled "Managing Natural Resources to Prevent Crime."

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.

Thank you, MVA!

A few months back MVA donated $10,000 to be used for Beautify CNMI! activities. $1200 of that money was earmarked to pay for beach cleanup supplies. The supplies were purchased this week.

Marianas Variety, Wednesday, February 7, 2007

MVA has 1-year supply of gloves, bags for cleanups
By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

VOLUNTEERS will now have enough supplies for cleanup activities as the Marianas Visitors Authority has donated a supply of gloves and plastic bags good for one year.

Angelo Villagomez, executive director of the Marianas Islands Natural Alliance and coordinator of the Resource Conservation and Development Council, said, MVA donated 8,500 pairs of gloves and 3,500 plastic bags for Saipan cleanup activities.

Villagomez said MVA brought boxes of supplies during the latest cleanup drive in Garapan on Sunday involving over 100 volunteers from the Japanese community, including tourists, and members of the MOVER organization.

MVA, as partner of the Beautify CNMI! coalition, has been focusing on improving the Garapan tourist district.

The supplies, Villagomez said, will allow volunteers and Beautify CNMI! to schedule at least two cleanup drives every weekend.

Villagomez is again encouraging residents to continue “adopting” roads and beaches.

The Sunday cleanup, he added, did not include the drainage system in Garapan.

He said a committee has been formed to address the “long-term problem,”
It will take a lot of planning to resolve the drainage problem in Garapan, he said.

Mariana Islands Nature Alliance and Marianas Resource Conservation & Development Council lead beach and road cleanups around Saipan every single weekend. There are also a number of government agencies, businesses, and community organizations that lead cleanups every month or every month. We are all always looking for more volunteers.

The schedule of cleanup events can be found by clicking HERE. There is no need to RSVP for event (although it would be nice), all you have to do is show up. If you would like to add an event or if you need cleanup supplies for your cleanup, please contact Angelo Villagomez.

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.

JSTA Cleanup of Paseo de Marianas

Members of Japan Saipan Travel Association (JTSA) and Marianas Visitors Authority (MVA) woke up bright and early on Wednesday morning to pick up trash along the Paseo de Marianas in the Garapan Tourist District of Saipan. Here are a few pictures: