{"id":243298,"date":"2016-12-27T06:06:53","date_gmt":"2016-12-26T20:06:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=243298"},"modified":"2016-12-27T06:06:53","modified_gmt":"2016-12-26T20:06:53","slug":"saipan-loses-clown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/saipan-loses-clown\/","title":{"rendered":"Saipan loses only clown"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Reynaldo<\/a>
Reynaldo Gabriel, more commonly known as \u201cHapi D\u2019 Clown,\u201d has been working on Saipan for 23 years. Last at McDonald\u2019s Middle Road as a crewmember, he left the island on Christmas Day in pursuit of other opportunities. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Everyone was busy celebrating Christmas Day on Dec. 25 but the lone clown on Saipan was busy preparing all his belongings to depart the islands.<\/p>\n

Reynaldo Gabriel, more commonly known as \u201cHapi D\u2019 Clown,\u201d set off on a new journey last Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

The entertainer has been on island for more than 23 years but he felt that it was time to move on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve basically grown up here, this place is a second home to me. I even got the chance to see so many of the kids I entertained grow up but I just think I\u2019ve learned all I can from Saipan,\u201d said Gabriel. \u201cI first moved to Saipan when I was really young. Thinking about things now, I didn\u2019t really feel like I did much and that there\u2019s so much more I could do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gabriel, when not entertaining kids at parties, worked as a crewmember at McDonald\u2019s Middle Road.<\/p>\n

Joe Ayuyu Jr. manager of McDonald\u2019s Middle Road, said, \u201cIt was an honor working with him [Hapi] and we all just wish him the best of luck.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gabriel recalled Anthony Pellegrino from Gino\u2019s Pizza first hiring him as a clown, having his career take off from there. He is now aiming for a professional hosting gig.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat really was my start as a clown. I love just making a kid\u2019s day and being a clown really helped me do that,\u201d Gabriel said. \u201cI have no intention of giving up my career as a clown, but I want to see where hosting can take me for now. I would like to thank all my friends, family, and former employers for taking such good care of me over the years. I will miss you all,\u201d Gabriel said.<\/p>\n

Janet Mendaiyao, a resident, said, \u201cThat\u2019s so bad that Hapi is leaving! Actually, it\u2019s more of a bittersweet moment because we all want the best for him but the kids especially don\u2019t want to see him go.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everyone was busy celebrating Christmas Day on Dec. 25 but the lone clown on Saipan…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":243300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1416,14888,163,1306],"class_list":["post-243298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-and-style","tag-christmas-day","tag-janet-mendaiyao","tag-kids","tag-middle-road"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243298","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}