{"id":216026,"date":"2015-12-07T06:06:56","date_gmt":"2015-12-06T20:06:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=216026"},"modified":"2015-12-07T06:06:56","modified_gmt":"2015-12-06T20:06:56","slug":"bsi-hosts-welcome-back-banquet-at-aging-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/bsi-hosts-welcome-back-banquet-at-aging-center\/","title":{"rendered":"BSI hosts \u2018welcome back\u2019 banquet at Aging Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>
The Man\u2019amko Center banquet welcomes the return of the man\u2019amko to the center. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nTwo months after providing shelter to those who lost their homes after Typhoon Soudelor, the CNMI Aging Center finally reopened its doors to more than 90 man\u2019amko on Dec. 2, 2015.<\/p>\n

To welcome the island\u2019s elderly back to the center, the Office on Aging collaborated with Best Sunshine International, Ltd. to host a \u201cwelcome back\u201d party filled with delicious food, live entertainment, and fun activities.<\/p>\n

Staff of Marianas Health Services was also present to carry out a health screening for the man\u2019amko, which included checking their blood pressure and sugar levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the man\u2019amko gave up their place for evacuees to use during Soudelor, it became a little rundown and uninviting. When they came back and finally got everything back to 100 percent, we thought it would be really nice for them to have a little welcome back party,\u201d said Best Sunshine lead coordinator Chandise Cooper.<\/p>\n

Two of Best Sunshine\u2019scorporate social responsibility teams led by director Rita Chong and director Geri Dela Cruz helped plan the party.<\/p>\n

Laughter and chatter filled the room as the man\u2019amko lined up for food and socialized with the Best Sunshine CSR teams, sharing their experiences as part of the Man\u2019amko Center and how they coped after Typhoon Soudelor. To welcome Best Sunshine\u2019s CSR team, each one was presented with a mwar-mwar as a sign of appreciation and gratitude.<\/p>\n

Margarita A. Aldan, one of the current active registered clients of the Aging Center, said, \u201cWe\u2019re very happy to be back to the center and today, we\u2019re happy that they gave us a banquet when we came back. Thanks to Best Sunshine for this touching gesture and also for all their help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best Sunshine CSO Tao Xing, the CSR team, and the man\u2019amko danced to the live in-house band composed of CSR members as well as a couple of man\u2019amko who played the guitar and drums. Following lunch, the man\u2019amko participated in various activities and were given Christmas-themed prizes for participating in all the fun.<\/p>\n

Walter Manglona, director of the Aging Center, said that having the elderly back at the center \u201cmeans a great deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have Best Sunshine voluntarily host such an event is very surprising that in such a short time, they were able to come up with something like that,\u201d he added. \u201cFrom the bottom of my heart, I want to say thank you very much, Best Sunshine. You guys have been awesome, you guys have been extremely generous.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CNMI Aging Center, also known as the Man\u2019amko Center, was built in 1974 and was created to be a place where the elderly could socialize with one another and participate in various activities meant to strengthen each other\u2019s independence.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the destruction of Typhoon Soudelor that left many on Saipan without shelter, the Man\u2019amko Center became a temporary safe haven for those without running water and electricity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two months after providing shelter to those who lost their homes after Typhoon Soudelor, the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":216027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1707,1311,8034,223],"class_list":["post-216026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-best-sunshine-international","tag-bsi","tag-csr","tag-party"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216026","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\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}