[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 5]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 6201]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   CONGRATULATING ANGEL RAY GUERRERO

                                 ______
                                 

                  HON. GREGORIO KILILI CAMACHO SABLAN

                      of northern mariana islands

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 22, 2010

  Mr. SABLAN. Madam Speaker, Angel Ray Tudela Guerrero is a teenager in 
the Northern Mariana Islands, who, despite facing extraordinary health 
problems in his own life, found ways to improve the lives of other 
young people.
  At age 12 Angel Ray was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. He 
spent a year and a half in a Hawaii hospital battling cancer.
  But Angel Ray did not let his disease control his life. Instead, he 
used his experience to empower himself to help others.
  During his long hospital stay, Angel Ray found that time passed more 
comfortably because of a playroom in the pediatric ward. It was filled 
with games and toys, computers and a TV well stocked with DVDs, all of 
which helped take the young patients' minds away from their illness and 
from the reality of being in the hospital. In the playroom, Angel Ray 
told a reporter from the Saipan Tribune, kids ``don't feel like they're 
sick. They feel like they're at home.''
  But Angel Ray knew--from personal experience--that kids back home at 
the Commonwealth Health Center in the Northern Marianas had no 
playroom. Though the average stay is only two-and-a-half days, some 
patients are there for six weeks or more. And they have no toys or 
books, no refuge from the psychological toll of being sick.
  So Angel Ray partnered with Hawaii state representative Glenn Wakai 
and with Reach Out Pacific, a non-profit organization that takes 
surplus medical and educational supplies from Hawaii to the Pacific 
islands, including the Marianas, Guam, Palau, the Marshall Islands, 
Chuuk, Yap, Kosrae, Pohnpei and the Philippines. Together, they 
organized donations of toys and books to create a playroom at the 
Commonwealth Health Center. The Shriner's Hospital in Honolulu was 
being renovated and needed to clear out toys in its pediatric area. 
Moanalua High School gave hundreds of books. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court 
donated shelving. And Matson Navigation offered to ship the 20-foot 
container stuffed with 50 boxes of books, 19 bookshelves, and 60 bags 
of toys from Hawaii to the Northern Mariana Islands.
  Madam Speaker, Angel Ray Guerrero is an inspiration to us all: an 
individual who took the adversity in his own life and turned it into a 
benefit for others.

                          ____________________