{"id":387706,"date":"2023-03-21T06:06:06","date_gmt":"2023-03-20T20:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=387706"},"modified":"2023-03-21T06:06:06","modified_gmt":"2023-03-20T20:06:06","slug":"mcdonalds-of-saipan-shindig-celebrates-30-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/mcdonalds-of-saipan-shindig-celebrates-30-years\/","title":{"rendered":"McDonald\u2019s of Saipan shindig celebrates 30 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Scenes from McDonald\u2019s of Saipan 30th anniversary celebration last Saturday at the restaurant\u2019s main branch in Chalan Lau Lau. (Photos by CHRYSTAL MARINO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

McDonald\u2019s of Saipan officials, employees, staff, and members of the community gathered for several family friendly activities last Saturday afternoon at the restaurant\u2019s main branch in Chalan Lau Lau to celebrate McDonald\u2019s 30th anniversary in the CNMI<\/p>\n

The celebration officially kicked off at 2pm with games and giveaway prizes, including free orders of fries. By 4:30pm, families and customers gathered to watch a live set of performances, including a performance from cultural dance group Te Ivi Maori.<\/p>\n

The restaurant itself was packed as special deals on select food, including some free smoothie samples, were made available from 2pm until 8pm, and as several schools participated in the live show, many families came to watch their children perform dances and songs with their schoolmates.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re so happy that the community has come out to support your locally owned McDonald\u2019s of Saipan and we want to show that we\u2019re here for the community, so we put on this big event. …We\u2019re happy to be here. Thank you, Saipan,\u201d said McDonald\u2019s of Saipan and Guam vice president Joe Ayuyu Jr.<\/p>\n

Ayuyu said he looks forward to another 30-plus years of McDonald\u2019s on Saipan.<\/p>\n

After a major renovation that introduced a modern look and feature at the restaurant\u2019s main branch in Chalan Lau Lau, Ayuyu said, \u201cWe want to focus on that and bring a futuristic experience to the people of the CNMI. That\u2019s our goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also expressed his deepest thanks to every person, business, stakeholder, and the overall community for their contribution in making McDonald\u2019s a success. He also made sure to thank all employees and staff. \u201c… I want to thank our employees. Some have chosen to make a career of working at McDonald\u2019s, and they\u2019ve been with us for so many, many years and so I want to thank them for their hard work and dedication. I want to especially thank the community. And, as what my parents like to always remind me and my sisters, the community is what makes us successful, so we always [have] to give back and remember the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday is a celebration for McDonald\u2019s and also a celebration for the people of the CNMI so thank you everybody,\u201d added Ayuyu.<\/p>\n

Throughout the day individuals and families could be seen either sharing or making more McDonald\u2019s memories.<\/p>\n

Sisters Christine and Pauleen Beceril from Chalan Kanoa shared that McDonald\u2019s is one of the places that hold fond childhood memories for them when they were growing up. They especially noted their birthdays at the restaurant, calling it a \u201cfun part of childhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDonald\u2019s crew members Leslie Babauta and Eros Estolas are excited and happy to be a part of the celebration.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing here it\u2019s all about family,\u201d they said, adding \u201c…I\u2019m very excited, this is my first time. You know, I\u2019ve been working here for only six months, so being able to be a part of the 30th year anniversary seems awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDonald\u2019s marketing assistant Jewel Cubangbang said event planning for the celebration actually begun directly after last year\u2019s golf tournament, and took about three months.<\/p>\n

Cubangbang said it had been such a great experience, especially since this event was her first time to plan one since joining the team just nine months ago.<\/p>\n

It was also announced last Saturday that the deadline for the McDonald\u2019s Race to Raise program for Public School System schools has been extended. The program is designed to give the restaurant\u2019s patrons the opportunity to give a ticket to the school of their choice after purchasing a minimum of $15 at McDonald\u2019s. Whichever school raises the most tickets will be awarded $5,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really all about the children and giving back to the community,\u201d Ayuyu said. \u201cMcDonald\u2019s is a family business. It\u2019s really into children and the youth, so this is a program in which we want to give back. You know, everyone loves the children, the children love McDonald\u2019s, and we want to keep that cycle going. Working hand-in-hand and partnership with the local schools, that\u2019s something we\u2019re very happy to do, so thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

McDonald\u2019s of Saipan officials, employees, staff, and members of the community gathered for several family…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":387709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-387706","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\/387706","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\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}