{"id":264509,"date":"2017-11-15T06:00:14","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T20:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=264509"},"modified":"2017-11-15T06:00:14","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T20:00:14","slug":"veterans-cemetery-gets-benches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/veterans-cemetery-gets-benches\/","title":{"rendered":"Veterans Cemetery gets benches"},"content":{"rendered":"
Saipan Chamber of Commerce members cut the ribbon to the newly installed benches at the CNMI Veteran\u2019s Cemetery last Friday. (Kimberly A. Bautista)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In honor of CNMI veterans who have already passed away, the Saipan Chamber of Commerce has taken the lead in having concrete benches installed at the CNMI Veterans Cemetery.<\/p>\n

Last Friday, the 60th Commemoration Committee of World War II, in coordination with the Armed Forces Committee of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, did a ribbon cutting ceremony for four new benches at the cemetery.<\/p>\n

American Red Cross NMI Chapter executive director John Hirsch told the attendees that the benches would benefit those who pay their respects to the fallen warriors at the cemetery. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese improvements are a step forward to enhancing our veterans cemetery,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

According to Bryan Clayton, who chairs the Armed Forces Committee of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, the project was in the works for about five months before they finally to an agreement that benches would be a good addition to the cemetery. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were really looking for something that was fitting for the area and to make it where it wasn\u2019t too obtrusive and that it would fit in and the benches were one of the many ideas that came up and it was the one we decided on,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Clayton said the benches not only enhances the area but also provide seats for visitors. \u201cIt now provides a place for family, friends, and visitors who come here to kind of reflect and sit in a nice place and just relax,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

According to Clayton, the overall cost of the project was more of less $5,000. \u201cThese benches are all made from scratch,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

When asked if additional benches would be added, Clayton said that further improvements entail adding more benches but they are also looking at other improvement projects. \u201cWe have a couple other projects that we\u2019re looking at. It may entail adding more benches, but we have some other ideas,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Also present at the ribbon cutting ceremony was Rep. Alice Igitol (R-Saipan), who was there to both support the enhancements and to visit a veteran loved one with her sister, Lucy Deleon Guerrero.<\/p>\n

According to Deleon Guerrero, mother to a fallen soldier, she is glad that families of fallen veterans are now provided a place where they are able to sit and relax while visiting loved ones. \u201cWhen we come and visit, there\u2019s no place for us to sit. This would be very helpful to us,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Igitol is thankful to the Chamber that worked to install the benches. \u201cWe thank them very much for this donation to the veteran\u2019s families. It\u2019s very convenient,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In honor of CNMI veterans who have already passed away, the Saipan Chamber of Commerce…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":264514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[46,19055,7911,14459],"class_list":["post-264509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-ceremony","tag-lucy-deleon-guerrero","tag-saipan-chamber","tag-veterans-cemetery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264509","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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}