BSI, DPS tag-team to fix CWA’s new home

Best Sunshine International, Ltd.’s Corporate Social Responsibility team’s recent collaboration with the Department of Public Safety’s cadets helped restore the new home for the CNMI Women’s Association in Capital Hill.

CWA chair and Rep. Felicdad Ogumoro (R-Saipan) said she was fortunate to work and collaborate with entities such as Best Sunshine.

“This project requires a lot of work so we definitely need a lot of hands,” said Ogumoro. “Luckily, the BSI CSR team can provide us that large amount of help that we need for this project. After waiting for so long, we were blessed to be assigned one of the government facilities up at Capitol Hill and we were even more lucky to receive help from the Best Sunshine CSR department and the DPS cadets.”

The revamping of the building alone is a three-phased project that requires manpower, Ogumoro pointed out. The first phase consisted of the removal of the surrounding debris, water blasting the floors, clearing out the old interior and scraping the old paint off the walls. Phase 2 will be the building renovation while third phase will be the painting.

The CWA was incorporated on April 13, 2011, and is governed by a seven-member board of directors. It was established by the office of Ogumoro in May 2010 and collaborates with other public and private organizations to deliver vital social services to the communities throughout the CNMI.

CWA’s vision is to ensure that women are fully engaged in the political, economic, and social development of the CNMI.

Best Sunshine CSR project coordinator Kent Calen said that his team is glad to help out with the first phase of the project.

“We were approached by Congresswoman Ogumoro to assist her with this project. My coworkers and I got to work alongside the DPS cadets to complete the first phase. As soon as the renovation of the building is done, the CSR team will be back to assist with the painting, which we estimate will take about a week. It took us four days just to complete phase one of the project but it was worth it because we got to meet and work with awesome people,” Calen said.

The building will serve as the administrative office for the CNMI Woman Association program.

Ogumoro says that she is glad to finally see her ideas come to life.

“For many years, I have been waiting for something like this to happen and I’m sure many women have, as well. Our idea of creating a program for aiding our women of the CNMI is finally coming true. With that being said, all the board members and I would like to thank Best Sunshine CSR team for materializing a dream that’s been on our minds for so long,” Ogumoro said.

Since the beginning stages of CWA, Ogumoro hailed Best Sunshine’s continued readiness “to help us in any way that they can. Thank you so much again for the undying support, not just to my program but to the community as a whole…you have helped our community so much.”