Hyatt gives yearend joy to 5 beneficiaries

After a stellar year of charitable donations and community outreach throughout 2019, Hyatt Regency Saipan surprised five more beneficiaries with donations of over $10,000 a few days before the year ends.

The beneficiaries include the Northern Marianas Sports Association, which received $2,824.18; the Salvation Army, which received $2,000; the Micronesia Islands Nature Alliance, which got $2,000; the Autism Society of the CNMI, which received $2,000; and the CHC Volunteers Association, which received $2,000.

Hyatt general manager Nick Nishikawa said the welfare of the CNMI community is always one of Hyatt’s priorities. “The CNMI community has gone through many things in 2019 and we pinpointed groups and organizations that needed a boost to find and strengthen their projects,” he said.

Nishikawa explained that the money that Hyatt donated yesterday is surplus from the 23rd Hyatt Charity Golf Classic that was held in April 27, 2019.

Rita Sablan, who spearheaded the volunteers of the CHC Volunteers Association, said the donation will be put to good use. “All the volunteers appreciate any kind of donation and this is a great surprise as this is the first time that Hyatt reached out to us. Part of our work is regularly talking to the CEO of [the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.] to find out what we can do to help the hospital.”

According to Autism Society of the CNMI vice president Romeo Cuellar, the money is a “generous donation from the Hyatt and this will take our work very far as far as spreading awareness about autism [is concerned].”

Environmental advocate Micronesia Islands Nature Alliance, which is headed by Roberta Guerrero, received a phone call from Hyatt last week about the award. “This is really a great way to end the year and gave us something more to be grateful about. We go through ebbs and flows of work but it seems like our work is always flowing and we are busy all the time, so donations such as this really help push along our projects,” she said.

“Right now, we are in the process of applying for new grant opportunities and we’ve got our pre-proposals. We have our fingers crossed and lighting candles that the decision-makers in Washington, D.C. will choose our environmental projects and we are hoping to get some awards probably by March 2020,” she added.

Nishikawa that they are looking forward to 2020 and being a consistent partner of the CNMI community in making lives better. “This was quite a difficult year for us in terms of business and we hope that the year 2020 will be great one for everyone,” he said.