Just another weekend

With the sheer volume of Beautify CNMI! activities going on every week, it is getting cumbersome keeping up with this website by myself. Thank you, thank you, thank you to the new Beautify CNMI! contributors Cinta, Bree, Bev, Walt, and Steve for helping me post pictures and tell our stories.

Event #1:

Cinta has already published a post detailing Saturday's cleanup of Koblerville. Her office and the Board of Parole were at it again. Great work!

Event #2:

Friends of the Mariana Islands (website coming soon!) also hosted a cleanup on Saturday. They removed 3000 lbs of litter from Isa Drive between the Botanical Gardens and San Vicente Elementary School. Holy cow! Thank you!

Event #3:

Also on Saturday, Mariana Islands Nature Alliance hosted their monthly cleanup of Wing Beach. The 15 volunteers from MINA, ISA CNMI, and Ecosaipan scoured the beach for tiny bits of plastic and glass littering the beach.

Some of the volunteers found a rusted out engine on the beach. It was much too heavy to move, so we left it where we found it. Here are a few more pictures:

The MINA adoption of Wing Beach has been the shining star of the Beautify CNMI Adopt-a-Spot program. Not only is MINA picking up trash every other month, but they are also paying for regular trash pickup at the beach, planting native tree species, keeping the grass along the road cut, and removing invasion vines (while under the supervision of CNMI Forestry, of course).

In the span of less than a year, MINA has turned Wing Beach into the cleanest beach in Micronesia (feel free to use that MVA). Thank you MINA for coordinating this great cleanup, ISA CNMI and Ecosaipan for providing volunteers (and for promoting our activities on your Japanese language websites), and special thanks to Brad Doerr for hauling our trash.

Event #4:

Beautify CNMI! made it to the shores of Tinian over the weekend! PSS and NMC teacher Bree Reynolds led a group of Tinian NMC students on their first beach cleanup. She reported on her weekend activities on this post. Thank you Bree and thank you NMC students!

Event #5:

Friends of the Mariana Islands hosted their fifth consecutive cleanup of Laulau Beach on Sunday. They had volunteers from Rep. Kaipat's Office and the SDA Dental Clinic. They removed 580 lbs of beach litter. Thank you, Everybody!

Event #6:

Department of Public Safety Crime Prevention Unit led some of their Law Enforement Explorer Program and Junior Police Officer students on a cleanup of Coral Ocean Point Beach. I was supposed to participate in this cleanup, but I missed it because they changed the time without telling me! The kids wanted to go swimming in the afternoon, so they did the cleanup in the morning! As I drove up, they were already loading the pickup truck with bags and bags of garbage. Thank you to the officers, the students, and their teachers from Hopwood JHS and Koblerville ES.

Event #7:

On Sunday morning, Mike Tripp and several divers participated in a cleanup of the water surrounding the Garapan Fishing Base. This was the least favorite thing I have done since I moved to Saipan in April. The water over there is NASTY. Garbage has been piling up there since WWII. Don't beleive me? When was the last time you saw a Schlitz Malt Liquor can or a Sprite glass bottle:

This event was the first Micronesia Challenge event for Beautify CNMI! It will be the first of many.

Again, thank you to every single person that is helping to make these islands a better place to live and visit. Your work is not going unnoticed.

Angelo

4th Dan Dan Cleanup

33 Volunteers participated in this month's cleanup of the road between Northern Marianas College and San Vicente Elementary School. This was our fouth consecutive second Sunday of cleaning up this road.

Alex, Nathan, Andy, and Harry from Saipan International School (SIS) participated in their first Beautify CNMI! cleanup on Sunday. Their teacher, Amanda Armstrong, suggested that they come to the cleanup.

Maki Ono, Aya Matsumoto, and Mayumi Nakayama, all members of ISA CNMI, pose for a picture while picking up litter.

Group photo: 1...2...3...BEAUTIFY CNMI!

Thank you to MINA and Marianas RC&D for coordinating the cleanup and to FMI, SIS, ISA CNMI, and Rep. Kaipat for providing volunteers. Thank you Rep. Kaipat for hauling the trash, too.

More Beautify CNMI!-Pala Potu Group Clean-Up Pictures

The Pala Potu Group and Beautify CNMI! volunteers did such an outstanding job of giving Tun Kioshi Road a make-over on January 27 that this story needs to be re-told in pictures. Thanks to the Pala Potu Group's highly efficient organizer, Bernard Cabrera, for working with Rep. Kaipat's Office to plan and organize this event. Great job, Bern! A job well done, Pala Potu! Thank you!

Others who joined the fun were MINA, CCD students of former Congressman Rosiky Camacho, who was also present with his wife Winnie. Captain Pete Guerrero (DPS) also joined the fun, as did students from Saipan International School (SIS) and one of their parents! Of course, MOVER members were there, as were Rep. Kaipat's Office and family members.

Thanks also to our DPW partners who cleared the roads earlier. Senator Maria Frica T. Pangelinan donated water. Gloves and trash bags were donated by Beautify CNMI! and Rep. Cinta Kaipat. Snacks and refreshments were donated by the Pala Potu Group.

Thank you! Thank you!

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.