{"id":211437,"date":"2015-09-30T06:00:03","date_gmt":"2015-09-29T20:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=211437"},"modified":"2015-09-30T06:00:03","modified_gmt":"2015-09-29T20:00:03","slug":"spongebob-brings-cheers-to-kids-at-pediatrics-ward-clinic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/spongebob-brings-cheers-to-kids-at-pediatrics-ward-clinic\/","title":{"rendered":"Spongebob brings cheers to kids at pediatrics ward, clinic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nickelodeon characters came to life at the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. yesterday morning, with Spongebob Squarepants visiting young patients at the CNMI\u2019s lone public hospital.<\/p>\n

\"Nickelodeon\u2019s<\/a>
Nickelodeon\u2019s Spongebob Squarepants visits the children\u2019s clinic at the Commonwealth Health Center yesterday morning under the auspices of Docomo Pacific, which is hosting a Kids4Kids Carnival on the island. At left is DPH director Margaret Aldan calling the children. (Jayson Camacho)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The popular \u201cBikini Bottom dweller\u201d brought much needed cheer and small gifts to the pediatric ward and the Children\u2019s Clinic at the Commonwealth Health Center, including other areas of the hospital.<\/p>\n

Children were happy to see Spongebob. Two youngsters, Debron Saures and Ian S. Padilla, who were both with their mothers, said the visit was a fun experience but they also looked for Patrick, one of the costars of the Spongebob Squarepants series.<\/p>\n

Ian\u2019s mother, Kim Sablan, said it was a great idea for Docomo to bring Nickelodeon characters to the hospital. She noted that her son watches Spongebob a lot.<\/p>\n

Selfie sticks were given to some of the children who interacted with Spongebob.<\/p>\n

Thomas Takeo Higa, chief commercial officer for Docomo Pacific, said the Nickelodeon character is on island for the Kids4Kids Carnival, a family-friendly event being hosted by Docomo.<\/p>\n

The carnival kicked off on Sept. 28 and ended yesterday at the Royal Taga Hall of the Saipan World Resort, with performances by other Nickelodeon characters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to bring Nickelodeon out here every few years and we work with the company in the U.S. who\u2019s authorized with Nickelodeon, because there is only one company. We do this under the Kids4Kids program,\u201d Higa said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has helped bring smiles for children both on Guam and Saipan. For Saipan, which is still suffering from the terrible devastation of the typhoon, we decided to sell the tickets at half price. We\u2019re trying to do four shows so the kids get in time for bed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Tickets on Saipan were sold for $3.50.<\/p>\n

Higa noted that aside from Spongebob, Team Umi Zumi and Diego the Explorer are also part of the Kids4Kids Carnival.<\/p>\n

CHCC\u2019s Division of Public Health director Margaret Aldan said that Docomo does this almost every year, including during Christmas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are very active with spreading the spirit of goodwill. Some of the kids are here for awhile and this lifts up their spirits and makes them happy,\u201d Aldan said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nickelodeon characters came to life at the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. yesterday morning, with Spongebob Squarepants…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":211442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230,163,1767,7290],"class_list":["post-211437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-docomo-pacific","tag-kids","tag-margaret-aldan","tag-spongebob-squarepants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211437","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\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}