\n\t\t\t\tNMIFA president Jerry Tan, second left, leads volunteers in cleaning the parking lot of the Oleai Sports Complex yesterday. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\nTristan Rogolifoi, the grandson of Northern Marianas Sports Association executive direc-tor Tony Rogolifoi, was the youngest among the volunteers, helping his grandfather clean the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium and the Francisco \u201cTan Ko\u201d Palacios Baseball Field, which sustained damage after typhoon Soudelor struck Saipan on Aug. 2.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am helping out my grandpa so I can make his work easier and faster,\u201d the 9-year-old Koblerville resident said.<\/p>\n
Tony has been leading the clearing operations at the sports complex since early last week and had to draw help from his relatives after his two staff\u2014Elias Rangamar and Greg Iginoef\u2014had to attend to their families affected by the typhoon. Rangamar and Iginoef\u2019s homes sustained damage from Soudelor.<\/p>\n
With his staff out, Rogolifoi needed the extra hands of his family members\u2014T.J. and C.J. Rogolifoi, Nak Nakashima, and Martin Omelau. The boys helped out in drying the floor of the Ada Gym yesterday and also did some work at the Tan Ko pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am very thankful to these boys for working with me for almost all day since last week,\u201d said Rogolifoi.<\/p>\n
Outside the field, Northern Mariana Islands Football Association president Jerry Tan led more than 20 volunteers in clearing fallen tree branches and trunks at the parking lot. Saipan Soccer School staff, CNMI U14, U15, U18, and women\u2019s national pool players, and Shirley\u2019s Coffee Shop employees joined Tan in the clean-up drive yesterday, while some individuals from the same groups cleared the track oval last Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring any crisis, it is important that everyone come together as a community because the government has limited resources. It is crucial that private citizens stepped up and volunteer. The collective effort from the government and the private sector will make our recovery from the typhoon faster,\u201d Tan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe kids are still out of school, so I am proud and happy that they come out and help our community recover from these trying times,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Angie Ito, who manages one of the soccer teams, said it is just right to help clean the facility (track pitch) that has been helping them with their training.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s time to give back to the facility that has been very good to us and welcoming. We\u2019ve been using the track for years, so we have to help clean it after the disaster that hit us,\u201d Ito said, adding that some of the players resumed training sessions at the pitch after cleaning job was done last Monday.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Tan hopes the group\u2019s move will inspire other people to help out the community in any way possible.<\/p>\n
Tony and NMSA secretary general Rose Igitol echoed Tan\u2019s sentiments, encouraging members of the CNMI sports community to lend a hand in cleaning the sports complex.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you very much to Jerry Tan and his players and staff for the initiative. I hope other federations will follow his example as lots of work are left be done at the complex,\u201d Igitol said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re calling on the Little League people and the basketball community. If they want to help out clean the facility, they are very much welcome to come here and assist us,\u201d the elder Rogolifoi said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Volunteers are joining hands to make the clearing works at the Oleai Sports Complex faster….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":207756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1519,603,1301,514],"class_list":["post-207752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-coffee-shop","tag-jerry-tan","tag-little-league","tag-saipan-soccer-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207752","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\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}