Over 60 trees planted in Lao Lao Beach

Hyatt Regency Saipan teams up with Mariana Islands Nature Alliance, the Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality, Hyatt?s guests, and volunteers from different agencies to plant trees at the Lao Lao Beach as part of Hyatt?s Global Community Service Month. (Jayson Camacho)

In celebration of Earth Day yesterday, volunteers from the Hyatt Regency Saipan, Mariana Islands Nature Alliance, and the Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality planted over 60 trees at Lao Lao Beach in San Vicente.
Hyatt marketing communications manager Luis Villagomez was pleased with the turnout for the tree-plating event.

“It was really great. It’s more than what we expected and the engagement of the guests is really giving us so much joy as a company and to be able to give back to the company and the environment is a really big encouragement for tourism and the community,” Villagomez said.

BECQ’s Lao Lao Bay Pride Campaign manager Jihan Buniag said the trees that were planted were Nanasu and Da’ok trees that are native to the Northern Marianas.

“This is our first time with Hyatt and it’s a great thing that Hyatt and MINA are coming out to work with projects such as this,” Buniag said.

Hyatt sales and marketing coordinator Dina Jones said that Hyatt’s corporate office has designated April as Global Community Service Month.

“What we aim to do here is not just give back to the community but also involve our guest [from Hyatt] where they can come back in a couple of months and actually see the growth of the trees they have planted,” she said.

MINA interim executive director Becky Furey said they wanted to strengthen their partnership with Hyatt and, as part of the “Nurturing Earth” initiative, they partnered with the global hotel chain and their guests to plant trees at Lao Lao Bay Beach.

“They gave us an opportunity to fundraise last year at the ‘Hyatt Heart of Gold’ and MINA was selected to be their beneficiary, so this year we celebrated with Hyatt’s Global Community Service movement, and it is awesome that they brought their guests,” Furey said.

One Hyatt guest, Nishita Fuminori, 65, was only too happy to participate, saying he enjoyed the activity.

“This is my first time on Saipan and it was very good. I love it here and I love that I got to plant the tree. I’ll never forget where I planted this,” Fuminori said.

He said he would be returning to Saipan to check on the tree that he planted and that he will be staying at Hyatt again.

Every April, Hyatt hotels around the world confirm their commitment to a higher purpose in life by giving something back to their communities. Through its corporate responsibility platform, Hyatt Thrive, the hotel and MINA partner with guests and other agencies in activities to preserve the environment.