{"id":265653,"date":"2017-12-04T06:06:32","date_gmt":"2017-12-03T20:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=265653"},"modified":"2017-12-04T06:06:32","modified_gmt":"2017-12-03T20:06:32","slug":"make-wish-child-lights-hyatts-christmas-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/make-wish-child-lights-hyatts-christmas-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"Make-A-Wish child lights Hyatt\u2019s Christmas tree"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_265654\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-265654\" style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Make-pix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Make-pix-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-265654\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-265654\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Make-Wish Foundation children prepare to light Hyatt Regency Saipan\u2019s enormous Christmas tree last Friday at the hotel\u2019s lobby. (Kimberly A. Bautista)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A Make-A-Wish Foundation child lighted Hyatt Regency Saipan\u2019s new Christmas tree last Friday to kick off the hotel resort\u2019s holiday season. <\/p>\n<p>According to the Hyatt Regency Saipan director of finance Yosh Gabaldon, Hyatt has been hosting the Christmas tree lighting ceremony for 30 years, using the same plastic tree. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is our kickoff for the holiday season. We actually retired the tree that we\u2019ve had for over 30 years and we got a new one,\u201d said Gabaldon.<\/p>\n<p>Preparations for the lighting ceremony took approximately two months. Friday\u2019s event included live performances by the Hopwood Middle School HDMP band and over 30 select Hopwood students sang Christmas carols. <\/p>\n<p>The Make-A-Wish Foundation Guam and NMI Chapter was also invited. This year, Make-A-Wish child Kei\u2019ani Hofschneider was asked to light the tree. <\/p>\n<p>Hofschneider is 8 years old and has been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes mellitus. She is currently in the process of getting her wish to visit Disneyworld granted. <\/p>\n<p>Hofshneider\u2019s mother, Sirena Santos, said she feels honored that her daughter was chosen to light the enormous tree displayed at the Hyatt lobby. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s not everyday she gets to do this. It\u2019s truly an honor,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n<p>According to Santos, although her daughter has a life-threatening condition, that doesn&#8217;t stop her from having a normal childhood. <\/p>\n<p>Make-A-Wish Foundation board member Kanae Quinn said it is a really nice gesture of Hyatt to recognize these children and allow them to take part in something special. <\/p>\n<p>Gabaldon said the lighting ceremony isn\u2019t just a good way to end the year but is also a treat for the workers to see the amount of hard work everyone invested in preparing for the holidays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Make-A-Wish Foundation child lighted Hyatt Regency Saipan\u2019s new Christmas tree last Friday to kick&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":265654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[46,233,19313,19314],"class_list":["post-265653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-ceremony","tag-hyatt-regency-saipan","tag-sirena-santos","tag-yosh-gabaldon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265653","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=265653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}