Citing the importance of bringing the word out against drugged and drunk driving, a group of artists have joined forces for the holiday season to form the 3D Elves Band, which would spread its traffic safety message through music. <\/p>\n
The group, formed specially for the Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention campaign, has been accompanying 3D members to presentations at schools. Most recently, they entertained the audience at the 3D month proclamation ceremony Friday morning at the Office of the Governor.<\/p>\n
The band consists of 3D vice chair Rose T. Ada-Hocog, Ian Romolor, Leif Pangelinan, Jermo Taman, John Saures, Chris John Selepeo, Lino Aichi, J.J. Norita, and Steve Limes. The group will also be accompanying the program\u2019s \u201cSanta Claus\u201d in the coming days during visits to schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s so many things going on, and a lot of kids have the impression that in order to have fun they have to be intoxicated,\u201d said Ada-Hocog. \u201cWe formed the band to show the kids that you can have fun and you don\u2019t need beer or drugs to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ada-Hocog said the formation of the band also serves as a way to promote working relations with the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout the community, we can\u2019t solve any of our cases,\u201d she said. \u201cAs a public servant, our first and foremost duty is to make sure the community is safe, and in order for us to do that, we have to form a relationship with the community\u2026make them trust us or feel comfortable enough to come up to us anytime and say \u2018hey, this is what\u2019s bothering me.\u2019 A lot of people have this mentality that cops or DPS is just there to bust people, put them in jail, or give tickets, but that\u2019s not it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ada-Hocog said the band\u2019s performances are also being done in a sense of \u201cgiving back to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe volunteers are here, and we combined the talents and give back as a way of saying thank you for the support, donations, and for just being there for the program,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Ada-Hocog said the group would play a few numbers after each 3D presentation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe encourage the kids to come up and dance, and after, we ask them \u2018Are you having fun or did you have fun?\u2019 and many of the answers we get is yes and that they want more,\u201d she said. \u201cThen we just tell them that it goes to show that you can have fun and not resort to drinking or taking drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The group will also be doing Christmas caroling around the island.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re taking into account the custom where come Christmas season we have the Christmas caroling,\u201d Ada-Hocog said. <\/p>\n
The band was first formed when the 2004 3D campaign kicked off in October, consisting of just Romolor, Pangelinan, and Ada-Hocog before expanding.<\/p>\n
Saures, a resident of Koblerville who has been involved with music for over 10 years, said he doesn\u2019t mind the time and effort he puts into the program as it is \u201ca worthy cause. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have anything to do at the house, and [with this] I can help the CNMI with drunk and drugged driving prevention,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For his part, Taman said he enjoys using his talent to send positive and safe messages. \u201cI really had a great passion of [music] and I\u2019ve been into it all my life and it\u2019s just a hobby of mine. I feel great that I\u2019m doing this for a worthy cause\u2026it\u2019s worth singing to the community and sharing our talent, and the problem with drinking and driving should be attended to and I\u2019m just trying to pitch in and help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Selepeo and Aichy both agreed with Taman and Saures\u2019 comments, citing the positive effects their efforts may have on the community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Citing the importance of bringing the word out against drugged and drunk driving, a group of artists have joined forces for the holiday season to form the 3D Elves Band, which would spread its traffic safety message through music. <\/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-86150","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\/86150","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=86150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}