Admission into the festival, which is organized by World Projects Corp., is based on audition only and is limited to six high school groups and two showcase university ensembles.
Chief operating officer Kirk Troen communicated to. DeWitt that the artistic director, Larry Sutherland, wished to congratulate the band on a successful audition and the outstanding band program at Saipan Southern High School.
The Manta Band has received multiple gold medals during regional competitions in every quarter of their program which includes a brass band ensemble, string quartet, solo performers, and even rock bands.
The Manta Band performed during the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics and the Annual Tumon Bay Music festival.
Saipan Southern High School Principal Craig H. Garrison said “the entire CNMI can take great pride in the accomplishments of the Manta Band when it performs in New York as ambassadors to the CNMI.”
Garrison recently relayed this achievement to CNMI Congressman Gregorio C. Sablan in a meeting and invited him to attend the performance if he is available.
The school needs to raise a significant amount of money in support of this prestigious event and will look to partner with the government and community in its efforts to insure a successful event.
Anyone wishing to be a part of this event is encouraged to contact Garrison or DeWitt at 670-664-4000.
Tinian’s free books program to continue
TINIAN — According to its founder, maïa, she will be running what is now to be called “maia’s Helping-Hands FREE Books Center” in her home, which is one half of the duplex behind the Tinian mayor’s offices, where the Helping-Hands Books and Donation Center had been providing free clothing and other donated goods for the past two years.
Since the owner of the building needed to rent out the other half, in these hard economic times, she had to close down the donation center last month, as reported in this paper.
But maïa has decided that instead of going to Guam, where she was asked by a local mayor to start one for his in-need people, she will stay with what she says has become “her family” in the nearly four years she has been helping Tinian residents with the center and writing assistance, among other things.
“I just can’t leave, when there’s still something I can do here,” she said.
“And I’m still hoping official support will be provided, in either rent for this building, or the use of another suitable space, so I can reopen the Donation Center and go on helping the people here to help each other, as they’ve been doing so wonderfully, for over three years now. It will be needed more and more as time goes on, sad to say, thanks to the global recession and our own weak economy.”
Meanwhile, maïa plans to have the “FREE Books Center” open again hopefully by next week.
All that’s needed, she says, is volunteer help and a truck to bring back the shelves and boxes of books that had to be stored elsewhere, for the time being.
Also needed, is a safe and dry place to store the boxes of clothing and tables, until a new home can be found for the Donation Center.
This 71-year-old lady who just won’t give up can be contacted by phone at 670-433-9993 (GMT+10, for those overseas), or by mail at P.O. Box 474, Tinian, MP 96952. Her e-mail address is [email protected].
