\n\t\t\t\tRotary Club Saipan hails Wendell Posadas as Rotarian of the Year for 2015. Posadas will serve the club this year as its director for vocational services. (Frauleine S. Villanueva)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\nAt a ceremony at the Pacific Islands Club Saipan last Tuesday, Olopai\u2019s contributions to the CNMI were highlighted.<\/p>\n
\u201cOlopai is known throughout the community for his lifelong passion in the preservation of Carolinian traditions, customs, and cultural identity,\u201d club past president Mike Sablan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTonight we honor him for his efforts in this area and for all his many achievements and contributions toward making our community a better place for all of us,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Olopai, said he is \u201cdeeply humbled\u201d by the award.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never expected anything in return for things that I\u2019ve been doing as ordinary citizens. I am truly lost for kind words, except to say, thank you all so very much,\u201d Olopai said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am deeply honored and privileged to stand before you and accept this recognition you have just bestowed upon me,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Ever humble, Olopai said he is accepting the award on behalf of those who helped him become who he is today.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am accepting this Citizen of the Year award on behalf of the Carolinan community, my families, my elders who are no longer here with us tonight but I am indebted to them, because they are the ones who shaped and mold me through traditional oral teachings to become who I am today,\u201d<\/p>\n
Among many of his works, Olopai is known as the author of the book \u201cThe Rope of Tradition: Reflections of a Saipan Carolinian.\u201d It tells of his life and work to keep the culture he grew up with alive.<\/p>\n
In his speech, Olopai mentioned again the need for the oral teachings to continue in the society instead of just focusing on western teachings. In oral teachings, one learns values, cultures, and tradition\u2014lessons that are sometimes more valuable.<\/p>\n
However, Olopai also calls for balance between the two teachings and somehow recognized the advancement of technology.<\/p>\n
Ending his speech with a joke and an \u201cadvice\u201d from his grandchildren he said: \u201cIf you want to know more about Lino, just Google me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rotarian of the year<\/strong>
\nThe Rotary Club also honored one of their members as 2015 Rotarian of the Year.<\/p>\n\u201cThe Rotarian of the year is a special reward and I would suspect, I never won it, but I would suspect that those who won it are proud to possess such an award,\u201d now past president Richard Cody said.<\/p>\n
He noted that officers and directors are not included on the list of those who could receive such an award.<\/p>\n
\u201cRotarian of the year comes from the general membership,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
This year, Rotarian Wendell Posadas was chosen by Cody.<\/p>\n
Posadas, who was inducted as a club member just this March, said he didn\u2019t expect to be recognized.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was surprised,\u201d Posadas said.<\/p>\n
Posadas will serve the club as director for vocational services for the current year 2015-2016.<\/p>\n
Aside from being a member of the Rotary Club, Posadas is also a teacher at the Northern Marianas Trades Institute. He teaches automotive as well as air-conditioning classes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lino Mettao Olopai\u2014an educator, a preservationist, a storyteller, and a navigator\u2014was recognized as this year\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":205887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5879,3198,5321,261],"class_list":["post-205877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-mike-sablan","tag-richard-cody","tag-rotarian-wendell-posadas","tag-rotary-club"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}