Navy hosts Easter egg hunt, games for children

Officers and crew of the U.S. Navy’s Maritime Prepositioning Ship Squadron Three led by Capt. Richard W. Daniel hosted an Easter egg hunt for children at the Saipan Community Church grounds on Saturday.

Daniel said this is part of the Navy’s commitment to build strong and lasting relationships with the local community and support to the CNMI through community service projects and events.

“We enjoyed it a great deal. One reason why we like to do these things is because it’s good to give back to the community,” Daniel told Saipan Tribune.

He said SK1 Toni Banks, who is in charge of the community relations project, helped coordinate the event. “We needed a nice space, and this seems like the best thing to do as far as getting the kids and the community together…and it worked out pretty good,” Banks said.

This is their first community outreach project for the year.

COMPSRON Three, a part of the U.S. Navy’s strategic sealift capability, is responsible for tactical control of ships of the Military Sealift Command Prepositioning Program in the Western Pacific Ocean. These ships, including those anchored in the Saipan lagoon, carry afloat prepositioned cargo for U.S. military forces.

Esther Jo C. Pinzon, who helped coordinate the Easter egg hunt project, said children from at least seven community churches were invited to the Easter egg hunt and other games.

“It’s a very generous act on their part. The USNS Lummus was looking for a community relations project and we’re glad to be working with them,” said Pinzon, who is among the youth program coordinators and members of the music team at the Saipan Community Church.

After the Easter egg hunt, children 3 to 9 years old received additional candies and other treats from COMPSRON Three, followed by a piñata.

Chen Chen Tambiga, 8, said she only found two Easter eggs but she enjoyed the whole search.

Her sister, 3-year-old Allen Tumbiga, got seven Easter eggs on her basket and was ecstatic about it.

Eight-year-old Esther Huh, a second grader at Kagman Elementary School, got six Easter eggs which she proudly showed her mother, Jenny.

“I gave somebody one Easter egg because he didn’t get any,” she said, adding that she had fun during the search. “I found most of them in the bushes,” she added.