World Resort donates $30,000 to Saipan relief efforts

The Saipan World Resort donated $30,000 to the CNMI government last Friday to be used for the disaster recovery efforts on Saipan.

Gathering at the Office of the Governor’s conference room, resort representatives personally presented the check to Gov. Eloy S. Inos.

“Under a disaster situation there is no private sector or public sector. We are all the same victims and all the same community members. It is natural to donate as support to the community,” World Resort general manager Hyung Cho Kim said.

The donation was made possible through the water park fundraising that the resort organized last month.

“It was an effort by the company fundraising through the water park and they came up with a matching fund for whatever amount we raised through the water park,” human resource manager Miriam Seman said.

For 10 days, World Resort opened their water park to residents for only $5 each, which served as their contribution to the fundraiser. An initial limit of 100 people per day was set but they exceeded and reached up to 200 a day.

World Resort was able to collect more than $12,000, which the resort management matched to come up with a total of $30,000.

During the promotion, they were considering donating the money to non-government organizations but, according to Seman, they decided to just give it to the governor’s office and let them figure out who needs it the most.

“We have a long discussion as to how we will distribute the money,” Seman said.

Inos said they appreciate the support and assistance given by World Resort.

“I want to thank you on behalf of the entire Commonwealth citizens,” Inos said. “Thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to let us decide on how best to allocate the funds. I know there are more needs and wants out there than available resources and we just have to be very strategic and smart. We just have to be smarter because there is not enough money.”

Inos said they will make sure to put the money to good use and will be sure to let the public know how the money will be used.

“We do have a non-profit entity that we put together and they’ve got a board of directors, officers that will make the decision as to how best to utilize whatever cash donation that comes in through the government,” Inos said.