During their brief stopover, the United States 1st Marines Expeditionary Force donated eight different exercise equipment to Koror State’s Sureor Gym in Meyuns and donated basketballs, soccer balls, volleyballs, and other sporting equipment to Meyuns Elementary School this week.
In addition to the equipment donations, a whole contingent of Marines spent the day improving Meyuns Elementary School’s sporting facilities, helping clean up the school area, and interacting with students on Wednesday.
“We are very lucky to receive the equipment,” expressed Grace Ngirmechaet, Director of State and Cultural Affairs Division of Koror State Government. She said Koror State has been asking for help to replace its aging equipment, and they are quite happy with the new donations.
The equipment consisted of treadmills, different lift equipment, powerlifting equipment, and free weights.
Darvin Inabo of the Koror State’s Sureor Gym said the gym serves the community. “It’s only $1 a day for walk-ins, but if the person is elderly or kid, we let them in for free. We want to encourage exercise and reduce NCDs.” Many nurses from the national hospital are regular customers at the Sureor Gym.
Some of the US Marines helped remove the old equipment and replace them with new ones. The rest of the Marines converged at the Meyuns Elementary School to improve the basketball court inside the school campus, install hoops, and play and interact with the students and staff.
“We wanted to come through here and donate some equipment and help and just go out and see the community a little bit more…engaged more with the kids. There’s lots of work going on but little community interaction,” explained Major Dunst of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, of their goals to increase community interaction.
The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force on SS Curtiss stopped over in Palau for 3 days after supporting exercises in the Philippines to donate equipment and spent some time engaging with the Palau community.