New volunteers

Sharmin

Rupert

Joel

From the bottom of our heart we thank you all for your support!

FMI had a very successful Island Wide Cleanup this morning

THANK YOU VERY MUCH TO SHARMIN, JOEL, JEFFRY AND RUPERT FOR THE SUPPORT.

FMI will be joining the Island Wide Cleanup

On behalf of Friends of the Mariana Islands (FMI), I'm calling for all the Filipino Group and other Nations here in Saipan to please come out and show your support to the Community, Let's all be UNITED for once, CLEANUP is one way of showing that we really do care for the Environment of the island. Anyone can be a part of Beautify CNMI! so, please come in Join us on April 17, 2009. It's Important to show to the community that we are a part of theme too specially when it comes to the Environmental Volunteer works. Anyone that is willing to join please registered to DEQ or Contact Mr. Angelo O. Villagomez at 285-6462.

Thank you and We really do appreciate the person or any group who will be participating on this Island Wide Cleanup.

Sign up for the Island Wide Cleanup

I am working with the Division of Environmental Quality, Marianas Visitors Authority, Rotary Club of Saipan, and Marianas Tourism Education Council to coordinate an island wide cleanup for April 17, 2009.

The concept for the cleanup is simple: If several thousand people spend just a couple of hours doing something to improve the islands on the day of the cleanup, the following morning the islands will look pretty nice.

This will make our islands look pretty snazzy in time for Earth Day and for Tourism Month in May.

The coordinators are asking people, businesses, government agencies, schools, and homes to spend an hour or two doing a cleanup at anytime on Friday, April 17, 2009. If you want to adopt a beach that is great, but we are encouraging people to adopt the area near their place of business. Governor Fitial has agreed to allow ALL government agencies to participate during working hours. More information on that should be forthcoming from DEQ and the Governor's Office.

I hope you can participate. I've created a simple signup sheet that will help us track our activities. If you would like me to send you one, please email me at angelovillagomez at gmail dot com. After you fill it out, please either fax or email it back in.

Island Wide Cleanup sign ups begin

The first 50 people have signed up for the Island Wide Cleanup slated to take place on April 17, 2009. The Saipan Mayor’s Office and the Office of Personnel Management were the first organizations to turn in their sign up sheets.

The Office of Personnel Management has adopted the Garapan Fishing Base and has pledged to recruit 20 volunteers to help beautify the area. Likewise, the Saipan Mayor’s Office has adopted Beach Road from Afetnas to Koblerville and has pledged 30 staff for roadside trash collection.

“Our first two signups adopted the roads and areas near their offices. This is what we envisioned when we started planning this cleanup,” said co-organizer Joe Kaipat of Division of Environmental Quality. “We hope to get at least 5000 volunteers this year,” he added.

According to the organizers, the goal of this year’s island wide cleanup is to recruit at least 5000 volunteers to spend a few hours beautifying the islands, whether it is by picking up litter on a road or beach, painting over graffiti, planting a few trees, or participating in some other activity.

The cleanup organizers are encouraging participants to adopt a spot near their homes, offices, or schools, although some organizations will adopt beaches and/or tourist sites.

The organizers are encouraging the community to get involved as much as possible.

Event co-organizer Angelo Villagomez said, “It would be great if we could get a few families to adopt the roads near their homes. We want people to take ownership and responsibility for the upkeep of their areas of the island.”

The Marianas Visitors Authority is providing funds for garbage bags, rubber gloves, and some paint and the Division of Environmental Quality has pledged to assist with transferring solid waste collected to the transfer station in Lower Base. Supplies, if needed, will be available for pickup at the Division of Environmental Quality.

Division of Environmental Quality, Rotary Club of Saipan, Marianas Visitors Authority, and Marianas Tourism Education Council are the co-organizers of the island wide cleanup.

For more information on the how to participate in the cleanup, contact Joe Kaipat at 664-8500 or Angelo Villagomez at 285-6462 or via Email at angelovillagomez@gmail.com.

Link to this blog

During the 11th Micronesians in Island Conservation Retreat I was tasked with taking over the learning network's blog found at http://mic-network.blogspot.com. I've fiddled with the template and the colors a little bit here and there over the last two weeks and I'm liking the new look.

My first change was to turn the background from a solid green to a picture of two fishermen in an outrigger canoe. What says connecting islands better than a canoe?

I also added a Sitemeter counter, some frequently asked questions, contact information, and changed things around a bit so that the site is easier to navigate (at least to me). In the past I've done a few widgets for organizations I've done work with (i.e. a logo that links to your website). I used that code to add logos that link to Friends of the Monument, Micronesia Conservation Trust, and Beautify CNMI. I'll add a few more logos as work progresses on the blog, including the html code so that you can link to those websites, too!

As for the color scheme, I offer the fact that I am color blind as an excuse.

I encourage you to add a link to the Micronesians in Island Conservation blog. In the upcoming months we should be adding some great conservation stories from the whole of Micronesia. You heard it here first.

Micronesia Challenge on Facebook

Are you a member of Facebook? Would you like to be the envy of all your friends? There is now a Facebook Fan Page and a Facebook Group for the Micronesia Challenge. Join today!

Both the Fan Page and the Group allow users to post comments on a discussion board, upload photos and video, suggest links, and leave comments. The Fan Page allows the administrator to write notes or, as I prefer to do, syndicate a blog feed. I am syndicating the Micronesians in Island Conservation blog until there is a Micronesia Challenge blog. The thing I like best about both is that the administrator has the ability to send messages to every member of both the Group and the Fan Page. This will come in handy, especially once the membership gets into the thousands.

Additionally, the Fan Page links to Fan Pages for the Micronesian governments that have signed onto the Micronesia Challenge: Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. It also links to a Fan Page for Beautify CNMI, an environmental coalition in the Marianas supportive of the Micronesia Challenge. I will link to other non-profits working on the Micronesia Challenge once someone sets up their Fan Pages. (Pehaps we can do this at the next MIC retreat or maybe the next steering committee meeting?)

So what are you waiting for? Log into Facebook and join the Facebook Fan Page and the Facebook Group for the Micronesia Challenge.

FMI recieved the 2009 Mobil donation

Continued support from Mobil Oil Mariana Islands, Inc. for the FMI 2009 Cleanup Project

As 2009 begins the Friends of the Mariana Islands (FMI) has been awarded an environmental restoration cleanup project funded by Mobil Oil Mariana Islands, Inc. along the Lau-Lau road from the Bay up to ISA Drive.

The $2,000.00 Mobil Oil Mariana Islands, Inc. donation will be used by the Friends of the Mariana Islands (FMI) for the supplies needed by the FMI Volunteers. The volunteers sincerely appreciate the support of Mobil Oil Mariana Islands, Inc. in this undertaken. Without the support from Mobil that environmental restoration cleanup project will not be possible. The FMI hopes for continued support from Mobil Oil Mariana Islands, Inc. in future project once we again demonstrate our abilities and dedication on the 2009 for an environmental restoration cleanup project along Lau-Lau Bay Drive.

The FMI would again like to acknowledge the years of support from Mrs. Cecile B. Suda; Manager of Public Relations & Government Affairs of Mobil Oil Mariana Islands, Inc. and wish her well with her retirement plan. We also very much appreciate the support of our new friends at Mobil Oil Mariana Islands, Inc.

On behalf of Friends of the Mariana Islands (FMI) we would like to thank Mobil Oil Mariana Islands, Inc. for their untiring financial support for our Environmental Cleanup.