{"id":361007,"date":"2022-02-01T06:04:56","date_gmt":"2022-01-31T20:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=361007"},"modified":"2022-02-01T06:04:56","modified_gmt":"2022-01-31T20:04:56","slug":"mgoc-to-seek-grants-to-help-tokelau-send-athletes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/mgoc-to-seek-grants-to-help-tokelau-send-athletes\/","title":{"rendered":"MGOC to seek grants to help Tokelau send athletes"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
Northern Marianas Mini Games Organizing Committee CEO Vicente \u201cBen\u201d Babauta, third from left, poses with the rest of the MGOC staff led by chair Marco Peter, fourth from left, in this group shot with the complete MGOC staff.
(CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Northern Marianas Mini Games Organizing Committee is looking to help Tokelau send its athletes to this year\u2019s Mini Games by tapping Pacific Games Council grants. <\/p>\n

\u201cTokelau is a small, very tiny community and they\u2019ve only sent a handful of athletes in previous Games. We\u2019re trying to facilitate through the Pacific Games Council CEO Andrew Minogue if we can have access to grants to pay for Tokelau athletes\u2019 airfare to the CNMI,\u201d said MGOC CEO Vicente \u201cBen\u201d Babauta.<\/p>\n

He added that Tokelau to begin with is not expected to send a large delegation to the quadrennial event the Commonwealth will be hosting for the first ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly 5-10 small group of athletes. It would be nice for them to be here. If that grant application goes through,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Babauta said he continues to push the 24 countries that\u2019s part of the Pacific Games Council to update their numerical entries to this year\u2019s Mini Games, including both athletes and officials.<\/p>\n

He said, so far, 15 of the 24 have given their latest delegation numbers for the Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games 2022 and they are the following: Cook Islands (26), Fiji (104), Guam (146), Kiribati (46), Marshall Islands (26), Nauru (52), New Caledonia (128), Palau (129), Papua New Guinea (148), Tahiti (195), Tuvalu (57), Vanuatu (43), Wallis & Futuna (39), and the CNMI (175).<\/p>\n

The nine countries that have yet to update their numeral entries are American Samoa, Federated States of Micronesia, Australia, New Zealand, Niue, Norfolk Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Tonga.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just holding the numbers for nine countries that are uncertain because of COVID-19…\u201d according to Babauta.<\/p>\n

Babauta also proudly announced that with the addition of Nishtah Sharma Thomas as communications and marketing supervisor the staff of the MGOC is finally complete.<\/p>\n

The rest of the MGOC include chair Marco Peter, sports director Ray Tebuteb, logistics supervisor Ezra Yumul, office manager and HR Michele Joab, finance manager Ladyvir Canape, and administrative assistant Marie Christ Fajardo Manebo.<\/p>\n

In an email, Thomas said she arrived on Saipan a couple of weeks ago and have been working on boosting the Northern Marianas Mini Games\u2019 internet and social media presence. She also happily shared that the MGOC recently had a team-building activity with the help of the Northern Marianas National Paddle Sports Federation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a full staff, we are working on connecting with the local national teams and sports participating in the Games this summer. And so, after work [two Fridays ago], we met with the va\u2019a team and learned some paddling tips and tricks from them!\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas also provided an update on the renovations of the Oleai Sports Complex facilities leading up to the Mini Games this coming June <\/p>\n

\u201cConstruction on Oleai Sports Complex is supposed to begin. We will be having badminton at the [Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium], athletics on the track and field, and baseball on the Francisco \u201cTan Ko\u201d Palacios Baseball Field. For most of our other venues, we are just working on making sure they are up to the official Mini Games standards. We have also procured most of the materials required for each sport, like new V1 canoes and a nice new set of bikes for the triathlon competitors,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She also encouraged anyone who has a lot of free time this coming Summer and also want to experience the Mini Games first hand to sign up as a volunteer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWant to be a part of the Games? Let us know how you would like to help, either right away with organization and planning, or during the event itself. Sign up to volunteer today at: https:\/\/northernmarianas2022.com\/volunteer\/.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Northern Marianas Mini Games Organizing Committee is looking to help Tokelau send its athletes…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":361031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[21876,14715],"class_list":["post-361007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-mgoc","tag-tokelau"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361007","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=361007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}