Once the Guam Museum of Culture, Arts & History is built, its mission, which is to promote understanding, appreciation and respect for our cultural heritage, will finally be realized. The chairman of the Guam Museum Foundation encourages our entire community to come together to help them build a place of honor for our people.

Although grateful for the museum’s current satellite location inside the Micronesia Mall in Dededo, the full story of the evolution of our Chamorro people can hardly be told utilizing such a venue. Dave Tydingco calls on all people who call Guam home to help them realize a permanent structure. “To step up to the plate and say this is as important as healthcare, this is as important as education and public safety, because truly many people in many different ways have said in order to foretell the destiny of a nation, you must be able to open up the book of our past,” he explained.

Originally inspired to make a lasting contribution to our community, Tydingco says he made it his mission to create what he calls an “edu-tainment center.” He continued, “We want to bring people in not only to learn, but to be entertained and to understand that education and a museum is not simply looking at artifacts, but its really about learning and having a great time doing it. Because if we really are going to sustain this over the years to come, it’s also got to be a business, it’s got to be a business that’s going to pay for itself.”

One such way of raising the $20,000,000 needed to build this lasting structure is by finding friends of the museum and holding a telethon, which the KUAM CareForce is supporting. “We have this wonderful telethon that will happen February 5,” he said, “And this telethon will tell the story of where we are in terms of the museum. We’re looking for people who may want to sponsor sections of the building or people who just want to contribute time, as what they call Docents, people who just want to tell the story of our people. We’re looking for anyone and any group of people who want to continue telling the story of our people.”

In closing, Tydingco gives credit where credit is due as he stresses the Guam Museum may have come from humble beginnings. But it is those that have contributed over the years that deserve thanks for giving the Guam Museum Foundation & Task Force the inspiration to build a symbolic Chamorro structure that will stand the test of time. “We want to thank everyone that has been a part of this process from day one. It really didn’t start four and a half or five years ago with a discussion we’ve had with Governor Camacho, it started beyond that. There are many people who have contributed up to this point; it’s part of the history of the building of the Guam Museum.

“We’re just going to ask for everybody else to come and be a part of history and help us build this place of honor for our people.”

This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 7:34 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.