Southern, Saipan Community win anew

Andrew Johnson and Sky Lee were not bored at all.

For about seven hours, the two youngsters along with their teammates playfully worked in the sand as they competed in the 5th Annual Build A Castle Save a Reef competition on Saturday at the Hyatt Regency Saipan’s beach park.

“Not boring. This is really fun. We like this so much. We have a good team work,” said Johnson of Saipan International School.

Lee said “it’s hard to do but you can learn so much and be creative” and most importantly it is a way to “express how to care about the environment.”

For them, winning was just part of the fun but the event’s objectives were more important.

Anna Zhu of Saipan Community School said she was excited for the new experience because it broadened her outlook on the things around her.

“We have a beautiful environment,” quipped Zhu adding that it is amazing that while digging in the sand she and her teammates found lot of tiny trashes, “tools, nails, plastic, and those kinds of things.”

Her team topped the junior high school division. The other members are James Ko, Justin Poon, and Isa Tudela.

For Noreen Mendiola of Tinian High School, this kind of activity was a smart thing to do.

“We have to promote this in order to conserve our coral reef. We should not pollute the water,” Mendiola said.

SIS students Seo Hee and Emma Mc Cullough-Stearns echoed the same concern, saying this is a different form of reminding other people not to abuse the vast ocean resources for everybody’s sake.

Light in the Eve Foundation organized the competition among 15 teams from various schools with the aim to raise awareness about the importance of preserving CNMI’s coral reefs.

With this year’s theme “Fantasea,” all the teams built creatures they have known from the bottom of the sea—turtles, sea serpents, fish, mermaids, mermen, dolphins, corals, starfish, etc.

The winning team from Saipan Southern in the senior high school division erected an image of the king of sea turtles, Poseidon. The Manta Rays also earned the distinction as the most spirited group and were given the Starfish Award.

The winning team was composed of Meco Sablan, John Babauta, Nisho Torres, and Madisa Onni. Southern also won last year’s contest.

Tinian HS was second and Grace Christian was third.

In the junior high school division, Saipan Community also defended its title, Rota High School was second, and Ladera High School came in third.

The teams were judged based on their creativity, degree of difficulty, composition, and presentation.

Unlike in the past where the competing teams were required to build castles, this time they were free to present figures but focused on the fantasy theme.

Other schools that joined were Hopwood Junior High and Whispering Palms School in the junior high school division, while GCA, LISS, Marianas Baptist Academy, Mount Carmel School, SIS, Tinian High School, and SSH entered in the senior high school category.

Before the competition, Australia’s master sand sculptor Steve Machell conducted a free workshop.

Machell built two popular ocean fantasy characters—merman and mermaid—greeting everyone for the upcoming holidays.