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!

1st in a Ron & Nancy Kramis Eco-cise Series

It is people like Nancy Kramis and her husband Ron who help make Beautify CNMI! what it is today. Nancy travels to work in the CNMI periodically to help our people learn to better assist and serve those citizens in our community who are deaf and/or hard of hearing. Depending on the need, Nancy stays for weeks, and sometimes several months at a time, and her husband Ron has made some of these trips out here with her several times. Their invaluable contributions as Beautify CNMI! community volunteers deserve to be recognized, so here begins the first posting of the Ron & Nancy Kramis Eco-cise series right here. After some begging, Nancy was kind enough to give me permission to post these photos and accompanying eco-cise journal that she shared with Beautify CNMI's Kaipat family (that would be my family and her adopted Island family).

The series starts here....

A couple of pics of Ron's and my Sunday a.m. eco-exercise program for your collection. Sunday, March 9 we did a round trip from the Bird Island lookout past entry to Kalabera to the end of the road. About 3 hours and not too much junk. Looked fairly good.We then hiked down to the beach and noted that the ocean has left way too many "presents" for us at the high tide line. So we high tailed it outta there with plans to return another day with many big bags.Gettin' outta there!

STAY TUNED NEXT TIME FOR MORE.

********************
Nancy and Ron have contributed in so many other ways, from adopting a flame tree. . .L-R: Chuck Sayon of MINA; Nancy Kramis of Beautify CNMI Bellingham, Washington; Cinta Kaipat; and Doreen Jesus of Beautify CNMI Guam at the 2007 Flame Tree Arts Festival.

. . . to making a $500 donation at the 1st Anniversary Dinner for Beautify CNMI held at the Aqua Resort last year. They were there again this year at the Jake Shimabukuro Benefit Concert for Beautify CNMI and HANMI.

In addition to their own Eco-cise, they've also participated in numerous Beautify CNMI! activities, including the monthly clean-up of the Paseo de Marianas, which is the heart of the Garapan Tourist District, and they've attended some Beautify CNMI General and Committee meetings. Ron is a member of Beautify CNMI!'s Parks & Trails Committee headed by Ken Kramer of RCD.

Even when they're back in Bellingham, Washington, they still participate from afar in spreading the Beautify CNMI "beauty virus" in the mainland. Their dog, Molly Kramis, even planted a tree in honor of Arbor Day as we in the CNMI celebrated it here.

Thanks, Nancy and Ron! Congratulations again on being winners of the 2007 Beautify CNMI! Spirit Award. You are quite an inspiration to many of us.

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.

Our First Coral Reef Mural Contest Planning Meeting

Earlier this year, we held a press conference with DPS Commissioner Rebecca Warfield and Officer Tricia Seman to discuss the rash of graffiti that cropped up all over this beautiful island of ours. Rather than just repaint over the graffit, I had this idea that we would have a mural-painting contest that would involve local artists, art teachers, and the young students involved in working together to paint either a bus stop or a vacant building. Imagine how much nicer it would look to our visitors and our community if, instead of looking at graffiti, we saw beautiful, colorful mural paintings. Tonight, we moved closer and closer to that goal.
Juanita Fajardo and Tricia Seman at our first Coral Reef Mural Painting Meeting at Java Joe's. I tapped Tricia to chair this huge project, with the rest of us providing full support. Angelo will post some minutes of the meeting later or as soon as he gets his notes back from Reina.
We met for a couple hours and put together our "wish list" of supplies, prizes, etc.
We also discussed when to hold this contest and how we would go about it.
Super science teacher Bree Reynolds flashing that winning smile.
Marites heeded my request and brought by a proposed budget for the Contest, as did Angelo. Ken and I added our own suggestion to the "wish list", as did the other planning team members.
And then in walked Missy and Bev! MISSY! It's *GREAT* to have you back!

And speaking of being back, I was THRILLED to see Brad back. I'm sorry I didn't get to share any chicken nuggets with him but, then, I didn't get any this time and he didn't stick around long enough to get hungry. LOL!

Anyway, thanks to everyone for coming to the meeting tonight.

A *GOOD* DAY!

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!

Kudos to Roland Quitugua!

Photo Courtesy of Saipan Tribune (Jacqueline Hernandez)

Photo Courtesy of Angelo Villagomez
Roland Quitugua in the middle talking to Kagman High School Students

Unless you work in this field or in a related field, most of us probably don't appreciate a good arborist when we see one. This past week, I happened to spend two days in a Tree Care Workshop taught by an excellent arborist.

Several years ago, one of the local hotels did some major re-landscaping and cut down some Flame trees along Beach Road. This resulted in several irate letters to the editor as our citizens spoke out against such an act. I was newly sworn into office as a member of the House of Representatives, 15th Legislature, last January 2006. A few months into my first term, I began receiving calls from one of those irate community citizens complaining about the "butchering" of our trees. The usual suspects were our Commonwealth Utilities Corporation (CUC), our Department of Public Works (DPW), and, to a lesser degree, our Forestry Division and our Parks and Recretation Division of our Department of Lands and Natural Resources. But, ask the average citizen and, most likely, they will finger our CUC or our DPW.

In CUC's case, they are mandated to provide power to the communities. The response I received from one employee typified the attitude that permeated the CUC culture. When the issue of trimming trees that obstructed power lines yet preserves the aesthetic beauty of the trees was raised to this employee, his response was that CUC's only concern is to provide power -- nothing more and nothing less. In the case of DPW, safety is their #1 factor, so they trimmed trees that comrpromised safety.

However, for the Beautify CNMI! team of volunteers who plant trees all over our islands, such goals are not mutually exclusive. We believe that knowledge and appreciation of proper tree-trimming techniques have been sorely lacking, and that, with proper training and good old-fashioned teamwork, we can accomplish our mutual objectives. After all, we all live on the same tiny dot in the Pacific Ocean and we ought to work together to make our home the nice tropical paradise we all deserve.

As noted in an earlier post, my friend Captain Carl took me on several guided tours in which he pointed out several environmental hazards--whether man-made or nature-caused. He also made me sit up and take notice of a lot of tree stumps that litter our beautiful landscapes. (Like I said, thanks, Captain -- I think!) Ever notice those coconut tree trunks that line the road past Coffee Care on your way up to the Legislature? When someone decided to cut down the coconut trees, why leave the tree stumps standing? Why not cut the whole trunk down to the roots? Even better, remove the old and plant another tree in its place? Look around you and I bet you, too, will see other tree stumps that were previously invisible to your eyes.

Captain Carl would end his tirade with "We NEED a Beautification Department!" Are you kidding me, Captain? With the economy the way it is; with everyone shouting about a bloated government size, there's no way another department would be created. The chances of another island being created out of the next volcano eruption is probably more likely to occur first. (In other words, don't hold your breath!) Well, instead of creating another department, I created Beautify CNMI!

And because of Captain Carl's opening my eyes, Beautify CNMI! and proud partner RC&D co-sponsored a two-day tree-care workshop geared towards personnel from CUC, DPW, DLNR-Forestry, and the private community. Mr. Roland Quitugua, President of RC&D in Guam, spent the two days educating the workshop attendees on the importance of tree care and trimming. The workshop consisted of classroom time in the morning, followed by a wonderful lunch buffet, some more classroom time, and then on-the-field training. The first afternoon, we replanted some of the Flame trees that we planted in the early beginnings of Beautify CNMI! The second afternoon, the group spent time under the mango trees up in Kagman at the DLNR-Forestry facilities. Each student had a chance to trim a mango tree branch and show off his newly acquired skill!

I didn't see any evaluation forms other than mine, but from what I gathered verbally from the workshop participants, this training was well worth their time and effort and Roland Quitugua is an excellent instructor. He not only donated his teaching services for the two days, but his infectious humor and energy captured the hearts and minds of the entire class! Thank you, Roland!

Following this workshop, class participants indicated to me that they hoped we would have other more advanced training in the future. That's always a possibility. In fact, we need to continue having this basic course to train additional personnel. But, in the meantime, we will be planning a proper graduation ceremony to properly recognize the newly trained tree trimmers. Stay tuned for that one.

DONORS TO THANK

Beautify CNMI! for sponsoring the lunches and for helping organize the training workshop; RC&D Saipan (Ike Cabrera, Ken Kramer, and Angelo Villagomez) for organizing the workshop; Mr. Roland Quitugua and his assistant Eileen for donating his training services for the two days; to the Grand Hotel for the hotel and meeting room accommodation; all the workshop participants and their supervisors, and Rep. Cinta Kaipat's Office for the support shown.