The \u201cSave the Guma Sakman\u201d petition spearheaded by non-profit organization 500 Sails received over 1,000 signatures within 24 hours of being posted. <\/p>\n
The petition is online at http:\/\/www.tinyurl.com\/gumasakman. <\/p>\n
The traditional canoe building, sailing, and swimming non-profit was recently informed by the Department of Lands and Natural Resources that it would soon lose access to the Guma Sakman in Susupe, the location from which it offers free sailing training and swimming lessons to the community. Unless the government reverses its decision, 500 Sails will be forced to vacate the Guma Sakman by March 30.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 1,000 petition signers were overwhelmingly from the CNMI and the strong response shows that the programs are important to the community,\u201d said 500 Sails executive director Pete Perez. \u201cPetitioners have the option to give their reasons for signing and it was gratifying to see that the most common reasons are the very reasons that we created the programs\u2014to improve health in the community and to promote and preserve our unique culture. Many saw the programs as particularly beneficial to youth who need to learn to swim to be safe on an island and many appreciated the opportunities for outdoor activities. Another often repeated reason was our programs are free and that for many there are no affordable alternatives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perez hopes that government decision makers will hear what the signers are trying to tell them\u2014that the decision would be a mistake. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor the CNMI government to pull its support of an ANA-funded development program in its third and final year, a program that is clearly loved, needed, and working,\u00a0just doesn\u2019t make sense,\u201d said a 500 Sails statement.<\/p>\n
As of 8:45pm Thursday last week, the petition had over 1150 signatures and growing.
\nTo learn more about 500 Sails, visit 500sails.org or follow it on Facebook at 500SailsDolphinSwimClub. (PR)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The \u201cSave the Guma Sakman\u201d petition spearheaded by non-profit organization 500 Sails received over 1,000…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":293205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-293190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293190","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=293190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}