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Tinian’s BIG donates $2K to Shriners Hospital
Tinian-based Bridge Investment Group donated $2,000 to the Shriners Hospital for Children in early October 2016. Shriners Hospital in Hawaii provides pediatric orthopedic care.
This is not the first time that Bridge Investment Group CEO Phillip Mendiola Long has donated to the hospital. According to Long, he has had a personal affiliation with the organization for years. “I would remember when my brother had a bone problem in his knee back when he was younger, I would watch Shriners taking care of him.”
Long has been making personal contributions to Shriners sporadically for about 20 years now. “What I’ve been wanting to do was cater to an investment that supports their [Shriners] specialist to coming out to the tiny islands.”
“Because the outer islands really have a much harder time getting experts, usually having you fly off-island, at an extreme expense, in order to go see one doctor. So it makes a lot of sense to invest in a program that brings the doctor to the island where he not only sees one patient, but others in the nearby vicinity as well. It makes more economical sense in comparison to a medical referral for one person.”
Long began speaking with the hospital about a year ago to try and support specialists treating other patients on the outer Pacific islands. Eventually he was advised to strictly donate to their travel expenses, to ensure that aid would go not only to Tinian, but the other small islands around the Pacific.
Bridge Investment Group is developing a casino resort on the Tinian harbor.
“Soon as we meet the compliance and Commonwealth Ports Authority agrees with the new buildings, then we can start on the construction of the actual hotel,” he said. “Part of our obligation to the lease of the harbor is that we repair and replace existing dilapidated buildings that actually should’ve been demolished a long time ago.”
“First construction we’re doing is actually a ferry terminal. A roll on and roll off ferry will probably be operational by March or April next year.” (Michael T. Santos)
