For some reason, the door to this small spot between the hospital and the newly constructed hemodialysis center had always been locked, and its basketball goal was unused.
Yesterday, Kaye Christian, chairwoman of the Mental Health Planning Council, Jeanne Rayphand of the Northern Marianas Protection & Advocacy Systems Inc., and Josephine Sablan, director of Community Guidance Center, opened the place which can now be used as a therapeutic garden for a psychiatric unit patients.
Christian sought and secured the approval of Department of Public Health Secretary Joseph Kevin Villagomez to transform the courtyard.
“I wrote a letter requesting him to renovate the courtyard and make it more friendly,” Christian said.
Shortly after Villagomez approved her request, she and her friends raised funds during last year’s Flame Tree Arts Festival.
In the courtyard, they built a pergola made of termite-free wood and designed by Soraya Rayphand.
With the help of Northern Marianas College-Cooperative Extension and Education Services’ Lee Bowen and Isidoro Cabrera; Sergio Loyola of the Coalition on the Anti-Stigmas of Mental Illness; architect Christopher Fryling; and artist Barry Wonenberg, the courtyard became a therapeutic garden.
Although it is not 100 percent complete, the place now looks cozier and more relaxing to people who need a nice place to take a break.
