E-Land donates $130K for Yutu recovery

Acting governor Victor Hocog, center joins E-Land Group of Companies staff and officials and American Red Cross-NMI Chapter volunteers yesterday at the American Red Cross-NMI Chapter headquarters along Airport Road. (Kimberly A. Bautista)

The E-Land Group of Companies donated yesterday $130,000 to the American Red Cross-NMI Chapter to aid in Super Typhoon Yutu recovery.

This is on top of the in-kind resources that E-land has already donated, like drinking water, diapers, butane, etc., that the American Red Cross-NMI Chapter has been distributing to families in need.

Yesterday, officials and staff of E-Land joined Red Cross representatives for the turnover of the cash donation.

According to Matthew Park, chief executive officer of the Saipan business chain of the E-Land Group, the $130,000 cash donation is E-Land’s way of fulfilling its responsibility to the community, despite being one of the worst damaged companies on the island.

E-Land owns the Coral Ocean Point Golf Resort Saipan, PIC Saipan, and Kensington Hotel. Both the Coral Ocean Point and PIC Saipan sustained heavy damage during the typhoon.

“We know what our responsibility [is] to…our community. That’s why we are doing this donation,” he said.

Despite the massive damage sustained by two of E-Land’s three hotels on Saipan, Park said that E-Land is still happy to extend all the help it can to the Saipan community.

“I’m not sure about our future, but we still want to extend our sympathy to Saipan and the community,” he said.

John Hirsch, executive director of the American Red Cross-NMI Chapter, said that, on behalf of the chapter, he is grateful for the generosity that E-Land has shown them.

“E-Land owns some of the major hotels here on the island. They have three properties and we’re just incredibly grateful for the generosity of their parent company in Korea, all their staff, and their leadership here for supporting the Red Cross,” he said.

Hirsch pointed out that E-Land also helped the chapter during the recovery process following Typhoon Soudelor three years ago.

“They helped us during Typhoon Soudelor and they’ve stepped up again and provided a very generous donation to enable us to carry out and fulfill our mission here of helping people,” he said.

“The most emotional thing for me is, while two of their hotels are completely closed…., their teams are coming out to help the Red Cross. Here they are, really suffering…with two of their properties closed but their teams are going out to help the greater community and that, to me, is amazing,” he added.