LibDay Royal Court raises over $45K

The Liberation Day Royal Court poses for a photo with the Liberation Day Committee during their check presentation at the Saipan Mayor’s Office yesterday. (Kimberly A. Bautista)

The 2018 Liberation Day Royal Court raised a total of over $45,000 in Liberation Day raffle ticket sales.

Yesterday, Liberation Day committee chair Joe Ayuyu, Royal Court committee chair Monique Boyer Sablan, and Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang awarded the Liberation Day candidates their 20 percent cut in ticket sales.

According to Sablan, the candidates were able to a raise a total of $45,258 by the coronation tally cut off date, which was June 30.

During the check presentation, the Liberation Day committee awarded a total of $9,051 to the five Liberation Day Royal Court candidates.

Ayuyu said that, in behalf of the committee, he is thankful and proud of what this year’s royal court was able to achieve.

“I just want to say thank you…to the contestants…it takes a lot of guts for them to do what [they] were doing. During [their] age, I don’t think I would’ve ventured out in the same way [they] so [they’ve] really accomplished a lot,” he said.

During his brief remarks, Ayuyu encouraged the candidates to continue their path to become leaders someday.

“This is one of your steps toward a leadership role that you all have the potential to achieve so we encourage you to continue…get involved with the community and whatever activities you can get involved in and continue your path to become a leader since you already took the first step…you can do a lot more than you think,” he said.

Apatang said that the candidates did extremely well compared to previous years despite the fact that their group was significantly smaller.

“I want to congratulate [them] because what [they] did was very gutsy for their age. This is just the beginning…” he said.

Sablan said that at the end of the 2018 Royal Court journey, she successfully achieved what she had planned for the candidates and that was to establish a lifetime friendship between the five of them.

“We had a lot of fun together…that was my goal for this whole thing. It wasn’t just to raise money and do something for the community, but to give them a chance to make new friends and to start a life time sister-hood,” she said

Sablan said that the candidates would continue to sell raffle tickets starting tonight at the resumption of the Liberation Day festivities.

The raffle drawing will be on July 21 during the final night of the festival and individuals have the chance to win up to $10,000.

This year’s Royal Court queen and princesses were Brinae Jessilyn Cruz, Taylor Jean Chong Sablan, Connie Blass Mendiola, Lovely Joey Loyola, and Milagro Omar Palacios.