Health enthusiasts, people who have a passion for walking and those who just love to contribute to a charitable cause are encouraged to participate in the second SOPHIA Friendship Walk on May 20.<\/p>\n
The walk will start at the American Memorial Park and end at the Saipan Grand Hotel and will utilize the scenic seven-kilometer path along Beach Road.<\/p>\n
According to one of the event’s organizers, JM Guerrero, walkathon is a fast emerging sport and leisure activity in Japan. There was even one event where a total of 15,000 people participated, according to him.<\/p>\n
Mr. Guerrero said the SOPHIA Friendship Walk has four goals. Its first goal is to help promote the island as a “sports and leisure destination”; the second is to imbibe friendship between Japan and the Northern Marianas; third, to add another event for tourists and residents alike to enjoy; and fourth, to advance physical health and mental well being.<\/p>\n
During last year’s inaugural event, a total of 125 people participated in the fund-raising activity. Of the number, 85 were from Japan.<\/p>\n
The youngest participant was Mr. Guerrero’s own five-year old son and the oldest was an 85-year old from Japan.<\/p>\n
This year, Mr. Guerrero hopes to draw more than 200 participants to the SOPHIA Friendship Walk.<\/p>\n
Participants to the event will have to donate $25, which covers a T-shirt, a certificate and medal and entitles them to partake of an island-style barbecue and enjoy entertainment after the walk.<\/p>\n
SOPHIA is short for Saipan Outdoor Physical Invigorating Adventure.<\/p>\n
The SOPHIA Friendship Walk is being organized by Taga, Inc. and is co-sponsored by the MVA and the Nippon Turtle Association, Japan.<\/p>\n
The event is also supported by the Department of Public Safety, Bank of Guam, JM and Associates, and Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n
Registration forms are available from any of the following establishments — JM and Associates, MVA and Ada Gym c\/o Mr. Bill Sakovich. (Mark Rabago)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Health enthusiasts, people who have a passion for walking and those who just love to contribute to a charitable cause are encouraged to participate in the second SOPHIA Friendship Walk on May 20.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57383","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57383\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}