BANMI secures Joeten, IT&E sponsorships

CNMI business anchors Joeten Enterprises and IT&E have signed on as gold sponsors for next month’s 2009 FIBA Oceania Basketball Tournament.

Basketball Association of Northern Mariana Islands secretary general Michael White was joined by no less than his counterpart from FIBA Oceania, Steven Smith, in accepting the donations from the two companies the past couple of days.

Last Tuesday, White, Smith, and BANMI’s Gabriel White received the $5,000 gold sponsorship check from Joeten Enterprises at the company’s headquarters in Susupe.

“We’re extremely grateful for Joeten’s support. They’ve always been staunch supporters of the athletic community as well as other good and worthy causes here in the Northern Marianas. We’re extremely grateful for their support of our tournament,” said Michael White after the check presentation.

Joeten Enterprises’ gold sponsorship was made through Joeten Charitable Foundation. The company has always been active in supporting sports and community events. It was also one of the major sponsors in the 2006 Micronesian Games and also helped in the staging of the 2008 Oceania Athletics Championships last year.

Yesterday morning, Michael and Gabriel White joined Smith in accepting IT&E’s $5,000 donation at the telecommunications company’s Middle Road office.

“We’re really grateful for IT&E’s support they’ve been a pillar of sports in the community and we’re really happy we have them on board for this tournament. It’s going to be a good tournament and it would even be better with IT&E’s support,” said Michael White.

IT&E marketing manager Kathryn Barry, for her part, said since the very beginning her company has always been part of the sports community and that IT&E is pleased to support the 2009 Oceania Basketball Tournament.

“We’ve been supporting youth sports and in general sports in the CNMI for a very long time. Since even before we were IT&E. We do try to balance it [by supporting] basketball, baseball, tennis, everything in the community. We worked with FIBA Oceania last year to help send our CNMI athletes to Guam for the tournament and we felt like we needed to do it again for the 2009 FIBA Oceania Basketball Tournament,” she said.

The 2009 FIBA Oceania Basketball Tournament will run from June 20 to 28 and feature the men’s and women’s teams of Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Palau, Guam, Fiji, Tahiti, and host CNMI.

It will be the biggest ever regional basketball competition that the CNMI will be hosting. The last time the CNMI hosted a regional basketball tournament was in 2006 during the Micronesian Games.

The tournament will have two draws for the men’s and women’s competition. In the men’s draw, the CNMI was placed in Pool B, along with Australia, Guam, and New Caledonia. Pool A will consist of Fiji, Tahiti, Palau, and New Zealand.

In the women’s draw, the CNMI was placed in Pool A, along with Fiji, Guam, and New Zealand. Pool B will consist of Tahiti, New Caledonia, Palau, and Australia.

The additions of Joeten and IT&E bring to three the number of gold sponsors for the tournament. Tan Holding Corp. was the first to sign on as gold sponsor for the event. McDonald’s Saipan also has donated $2,000 to BANMI.

BANMI said additional sponsorships are still available for companies who want to take advantage of associating with this prestigious tournament.

For further information about sponsorship opportunities, contact BANMI president Elias Rangamar at 664-2502 or Michael White at 234-6547.