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May as Mes Man’Amko honors the elderly
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Posted on Apr 29 2008
In efforts to educate the younger generation on the wisdom of senior citizens, the Aging Center will be holding a monthlong affair in celebration of the Older Americans Month.
Saipan Mayor Juan B. Tudela endorsed the occasion yesterday in a proclamation signing ceremony that designated May as Mes Man’Amko/Maramual Tuufey, or Older Americans Month, an annual event that is celebrated across the United States and its territories.
Tudela said he has given his heartfelt support to the program for the past seven years because he knows that the elderly deserve care and support. “Without them, their children and chidren’s children will not be who they are and what they are today.”
“By age, I am more than qualified to be with you in the program, and maybe after retirement and at the end of my term next year, I will be joining you all right here in this building,” Tudela said in a speech addressing the senior citizens and Office of Aging.
Acting Secretary Melvin Faisao said that one his greatest joys working in DCCA is spending time with the island’s senior citizens.
“They share wisdom and knowledge on every subject you can imagine and they are living testaments to the greatness that we come from,” he said.
Aging Office director Howard I. Macaranas said that senior citizens are full of history, wisdom and knowledge and that he finds himself learning from them.
The CNMI is home to over 2,000 citizens age 60 or older. An average of 90 to 100 senior citizens visit the Aging Center on a daily basis.
The Aging Center has lined up an array of activities for the whole month, including the coronation of the 2008 Mes Man’Amko King and Queen on May 30.
The proclamation was read in three separate languages: English by Christiana Michael, Chamorro by Susana Santos, and Carolinian by Jauquina Kaniki.
The proclamation stated that is the responsibility of the community “to work together and prepare for changing older adult populations by modernizing systems of care and providing consumers with more control over their lives.”
