Deleon Guerrero champions eco-initiatives

Editor’s Note: This article is part of “Spotlight,” a recurring series featuring CNMI personalities and how they are helping the island community with their advocacies or their work. To suggest a person to feature in this section, email us at editor@saipantribune.com.

Beauty with a purpose. That’s how the Miss Earth competition was marketed in the CNMI and, in a short interview with 2019 Miss Earth Leisha Deleon Guerrero, she appears to embody that purpose-driven ethos, her personal advocacies aligned with helping the island community.

And while there is not one thing that defines who Deleon Guerrero is, she is certainly someone who wants to be a community leader in the future, who believes that education plays an important role in everyday lives, and, as the CNMI’s representative at the upcoming Miss Earth 2019 competition in October, she pairs the trappings of her title with advocacies that build on the natural beauty of the CNMI.

“Miss Earth 2019 is an eco-warrior, she is someone who is part of the action. She leads by example, and shows her community what she can do for our environment, so that others can follow up,” Deleon Guerrero said. “She does all she can for her community, and with her platform, advocates for sustaining not only her environment, but the Earth as a whole.”

One of Miss Earth Marianas Leisha Deleon Guerrero’s projects is to help bring back trees on the island by participating in tree-planting activities. (Contributed Photos)

Deleon Guerrero, a 19-year-old Liberal Arts student at the Northern Marianas College, was crowned as the CNMI’s very first Miss Earth, only last June.

To help advance environmental awareness on the island, Deleon Guerrero has been participating in tree plantings, trash cleanups, and in promoting the use of reusable bags.

“I really want to work on improving our waste management here and an awareness [of the effects] climate change has on the islands,” she said.

Deleon Guerrero believes that the biggest environmental threat are people, as people could be so unconscious of their doings and responsibilities. She quickly adds, though, that people are also the solution.

“People can be that change, we can be that solution,” she said. “Education plays a big role that it takes learning and educating yourself on what you can do as an individual to help better our environment because a simple action, if it’s multiplied by hundreds, could make a huge impact.”

Deleon Guerrero advocates for the use of reusable bags when shopping.

Deleon Guerrero believes that it’s the “little” acts in the community that can ultimately lead to big changes for CNMI.

“Let us educate ourselves on how we can preserve and protect our islands, so that younger generations can see what we are doing and carry it out to the future generations who can continue to pass it down,” she said. “Our lands, our seas, our skies, all the beauty that Marianas has to offer, is not only for us, not only for the future generations who would be living on the islands, but for the rest of the world.”

Deleon Guerrero will represent the CNMI at the Miss Earth 2019 competition, which will be held on Oct. 26 in the Philippines. She hopes to be able to best represent the Marianas, and its warmth and friendliness, to the rest of the world. She intends to show the world that she cares about the environment, and is bent on protecting and preserving its natural resources, as with the rest of the Mariana Islands.