{"id":272824,"date":"2018-03-28T06:06:28","date_gmt":"2018-03-27T20:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=272824"},"modified":"2018-03-28T06:06:28","modified_gmt":"2018-03-27T20:06:28","slug":"mcdonalds-saipan-honors-partners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/mcdonalds-saipan-honors-partners\/","title":{"rendered":"McDonald\u2019s Saipan honors partners"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
McDonald\u2019s Saipan presents a $3,000 to the Salvation Army as part of its 25th anniversary donation during the company\u2019s Vendor Appreciation Dinner Monday night at the Giovanni\u2019s Restaurant of Hyatt Regency Saipan. (Mark Rabago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

McDonald\u2019s Saipan gave its partners a fitting salute during the company\u2019s Vendor Appreciation Dinner that also commemorated its silver anniversary Monday night at the Giovanni\u2019s Restaurant of Hyatt Regency Saipan.<\/p>\n

Jose \u201cJoe\u201d Cruz Ayuyu, president and owner\/operator of McDonald\u2019s Saipan, said the fastfood franchisee is dedicating the whole evening to its vendors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to honor them and thank them for sticking with McDonald\u2019s during the turbulent times and the good times. We\u2019re very fortunate to have [such] partners\u2026on the island,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Later in the evening, McDonald\u2019s Saipan gave corporate awards made out of crystal in the shape of French fries to five vendors that have served the company since Day 1: Herman\u2019s Modern Bakery, Coca-Cola Beverage Co. (Micronesia), Matson, Inc., Calvo\u2019s Insurance, and Yaong Corp.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Jose \u201cJoe\u201d Cruz Ayuyu, president and owner\/operator of McDonald\u2019s Saipan, and Marcia Ayuyu, who is the company\u2019s owner\/operator, speaks about the opening of McDonald\u2019s Saipan during the company\u2019s Vendor Appreciation Dinner Monday night at the Giovanni\u2019s Restaurant of Hyatt Regency Saipan. (Mark Rabago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI want to be successful but I also want our partners to be successful because, if they\u2019re not successful, we won\u2019t also be successful,\u201d said Ayuyu, who added that McDonald\u2019s owe these five companies big time, recalling the times when they\u2019d call Herman\u2019s Bakery to make extra buns, ask Matson to prioritize their cargo so they can unload their items literally an hour after the ship had docked, and how Coca-Cola partly built its plant on Middle Road to accommodate McDonald\u2019s standards.<\/p>\n

Ayuyu said it wasn\u2019t all a bed of roses the past 25 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a very long journey for me and my wife since we opened McDonald\u2019s Saipan 25 years ago. The journey has been bumpy over the years. But if you don\u2019t go through those bumps, you wouldn\u2019t know how to get better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ayuyu is appreciative of what McDonald\u2019s Saipan has meant to his family and has no regrets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were able to raise a family and send our kids to school [because of McDonald\u2019s]. My expectations were not to become rich but just to make enough money to be able to support my family so I can give my children an education that was a lot better than what I had,\u201d said Ayuyu, who is the first in his family to graduate from college.<\/p>\n

Ayuyu\u2019s wife, Marcia, who is also the company\u2019s owner\/operator, said this milestone is something she would cherish.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty-five years ago I was taking care of a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old. Now, I look back and the 4-year-old and a 2-year-old are now working in the family business,\u201d said Marcia, who has another daughter, Ashley, working in Guam.<\/p>\n

Aside from honoring partners, McDonald\u2019s Saipan also gave $3,000 to the Salvation Army as part of its 25th anniversary donation.<\/p>\n

A surprised Pastor Wayne Gillespie thanked the Ayuyu family for the kind gesture and said it would go a long way in keeping its pantries stocked.<\/p>\n

American Red Cross-NMI Chapter executive director John Hirsh and Northern Marianas Athletics president Ramon Tebuteb also paid tribute to McDonald\u2019s Saipan for the support they\u2019ve given to their groups.<\/p>\n

Hirsh said McDonald\u2019s Saipan has been an invaluable partner, not only in the local Red Cross chapter\u2019s yearly signature walkathon fundraiser, but also has helped in its fire prevention campaigns and in the aftermath of Typhoon Soudelor in 2015.<\/p>\n

Tebuteb said the company has unofficially sponsored the track and field association\u2019s all-schools championship since 2002. He recalled that McDonald\u2019s Saipan has been in the group\u2019s consciousness since 1993, the year when it opened, when their volunteers who just survived a boat capsizing immediately asked to be treated to McDonald\u2019s soon after their rescue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

McDonald\u2019s Saipan gave its partners a fitting salute during the company\u2019s Vendor Appreciation Dinner that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":273093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3839,5867,5802,6333],"class_list":["post-272824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-modern-bakery","tag-northern-marianas-athletics","tag-pastor-wayne-gillespie","tag-typhoon-soudelor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272824","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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}