{"id":351550,"date":"2021-09-13T06:05:59","date_gmt":"2021-09-12T20:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=351550"},"modified":"2021-09-13T06:05:59","modified_gmt":"2021-09-12T20:05:59","slug":"green-gala-heralds-nathrani-caravan-of-food-saipan-community-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/green-gala-heralds-nathrani-caravan-of-food-saipan-community-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Green Gala heralds Nathrani, Caravan of Food, Saipan Community School"},"content":{"rendered":"

The CNMI heralded three climate change champions\u2014Caravan of Food, Saipan Community School, and Riya Nathrani\u2014at this year\u2019s Green Gala, organized by the Micronesia Islands Nature Alliance last Friday, Sept. 10, at the Aqua Resort Club in Achugao.<\/p>\n

For this year\u2019s green awards, they focused on individuals, green businesses, and schools that \u201creally take the issue of climate change seriously\u201d and have incorporated that ethic into their daily lives and shared it with the community, said MINA executive director Roberta Guerrero in a later interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe encourage everybody to continue what they can do,\u201d Guerrero said. \u201cWe\u2019re fortunate here in the CNMI because we are a small community and we all support each other. Even a small little initiative to help combat climate change [that] started here goes to the broader community, and then goes to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Caravan
Caravan of Foods\u2019 Salam and Jihan Younis are presented with the Green Business of the Year award at last Friday\u2019s Green Gala at the Aqua Resort Club in Achugao. With them are MINA executive director Roberta Guerrero, MINA\u2019s board of directors, Miss Marianas Savannah Delos Santos, and Miss Northern Marianas Earth Maria Terlaje. (Iva Maurin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Green Business of the Year<\/strong><\/p>\n

With a long-held belief that an eco-conscious business is a healthy business, Caravan of Food won as Green Business of the Year. From the beginning of its operations, Caravan has embraced environment-friendly practices, including the elimination of straws and plastic bags, reduction in oil use, and the use of totally-compostable packaging materials.<\/p>\n

Their patrons also get to have a taste of fresh produce, locally grown at their farm in Dandan, a member of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service\u2019s Environmental Quality Incentive Program.<\/p>\n

Caravan\u2019s Salam and Jihan Younis expressed appreciation to MINA for honoring businesses that do environmental initiatives, and to their patrons, who they encourage to also adopt eco-friendly practices.<\/p>\n

The Younis couple also extended an invitation to other businesses to collaborate with them, to work with the government to incentivize plastic-free and environmentally-friendly businesses.<\/p>\n

\"Saipan
Saipan Community School principal Amanda Dunn receives the award for Environmental Heroes Award on behalf of the Saipan Community School, during Friday\u2019s Green Gala at the Aqua Resort Club in Achugao. She is joined by MINA officials, Miss Marianas Savannah Delos Santos, and Miss Northern Marianas Earth Maria Terlaje. (Iva Maurin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Environmental Heroes Award<\/strong><\/p>\n

With a dedication to the environment echoed though its students, Saipan Community School bagged this year\u2019s Environmental Heroes Award.<\/p>\n

Saipan Community School teaches environmental stewardship through its Eco-Avenger program, where teachers and staff do eco-friendly activities with students through projects like recycling programs, installation and maintenance of trash receptacles around and even outside the campus, tree plantings, and beach cleanups.<\/p>\n

The school was nominated by a parent of a student, who also has been an Eco-Avenger since first grade, where she learned how to recycle, and her parents were encouraged to drop recyclable items that can be up-cycled to use for class projects, or take it to the transfer facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working to take care of the blessings that God\u2019s given us with this earth and they [students and staff] are\u2019 doing an amazing job,\u201d SCS principal Amanda Dunn said in an interview.<\/p>\n

Dunn added that through MINA, the Eco-Avengers were able to plant trees, and that they were able to start a sustainable beach cleanup along Susupe Beach, where they put trash cans out, and go with the students, and collect trash from the beach area once a week.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Riya Nathrani receives the award as this year\u2019s Environmental Champion during last Friday\u2019s Green Gala at the Aqua Resort Club in Achugao. She is joined by MINA officials, Miss Marianas Savannah Delos Santos, and Miss Northern Marianas Earth Maria Terlaje. (Iva Maurin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Environmental Champion Award<\/strong><\/p>\n

For her extraordinary commitment to conservation, Hopwood Middle School teacher Dr. Riya Nathrani was named Environmental Champion awardee for this year.<\/p>\n

Nathrani bested other nominees with her environmental efforts built \u201cfrom the ground up\u201d\u2014beginning with debris removal, planting trees along the perimeters of her workplace, and overcoming the challenges into keeping the trees viable.<\/p>\n

With the assistance of MINA and the Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality, Nathrani developed a rainwater catchment system with the new tree saplings and then expanded this system to include a fruit and vegetable garden in the premises. Now, the rainwater system is being used in agriculture class, for the students to water the plants.<\/p>\n

In her interview, Nathrani said that she may have received the award, but it is really her students who work hard to bring the projects to life. \u201cMy main goal, through these activities, and of course with MINA\u2019s programs, is to inspire my students to be aware of our natural resources and conserve them and get them interested in careers in the environment because we really need more of that in our island.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nathrani also encourages everyone in the community who, like her, are aspiring to champion the environment, to look out for opportunities. \u201cWe have so many environmental organizations on island that provide programs and ways to get involved, whether it\u2019s planting a tree with the MINA projects or being a part of the BECQ beach cleanups. I think if everybody does a small part, we can do so much for our island.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The CNMI heralded three climate change champions\u2014Caravan of Food, Saipan Community School, and Riya Nathrani\u2014at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":351551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[21349,4402,5987],"class_list":["post-351550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-environmental-heroes-award","tag-green-gala","tag-saipan-community-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351550","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\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}