LIHUE — Sometimes, vacations don’t turn out as hoped.
Wallets can be stolen. Identification cards lost. Glasses broken. Vandalism to a rental car. Sprained ankles or a broken arm.
It’s then the Visitor Aloha Society of Kauai rises to the occasion.
Executive Director Daphne Therese said the organization exists for one main task: help visitors experiencing adversity on Kauai.
“Crime happens even in paradise,” Therese said. “It’s just being mindful.”
Last year, the organization assisted nearly 400 visitors.
That help might mean tracking down a new passport. Providing lodging. Arranging flight changes. Food. Maybe just providing nothing more than comforting words and a hug.
“Whether it’s waiving luggage fees because now you’re going home with somebody else’s luggage that you didn’t originally have with you, to hotels and late night flight changes,” said Sue Kanoho, VASK board president and executive director of the Kauai Visitors Bureau.
Not a single case has been the same, Kanoho said.
What the agency does is the epitome of the aloha spirit, she said.
“It’s not a matter of paid or not, it’s this is what we do. It is aloha, it is ohana, it’s hanai, it’s Hawaii, it’s Kauai, so that is our values and traditions as a culture,” Therese said.
The VASK is a community-based organization with about 30 volunteers. It is funded primarily by grants and donations and recently received a $1,000 gift from Enterprise Holding.
It works in partnership with the Kauai Police Department, the KVB, Kauai Marriott Resort, the County of Kauai and neighborhood watch organizations.
“We have a good web and the main thing is that we have a nice islandwide base that we can assist what communities they may be staying in and have our communities represent the organization and reach out to the visitors,” Therese said.
Because each case is unique, assistance is given on an individual basis. But there is one constant: Each gift comes from the heart of Kauai.
“We are a very unique and amazing organization,” Therese said. “We may be small but we’re really huge at the same time because of what we do. There’s really no others.”
Kanoho said one of the most memorable experiences she’s had with the organization is when she met the man who lost his leg during a shark attack last year and needed assistance.
Assisting him was a team effort that came together beautifully because everyone did what needed to be done in the moment, she said.
“He had such an amazing attitude just having lost his leg in the shark attack and he just needed some help with some lodging,” she said.
There are difficult, even heart-breaking, situations they deal with. VASK is ready for those, too.
In fatal incidences, it usually refers clients to Life’s Bridges for counseling, while they assist with the logistics of getting survivors home.
“Nobody gets left behind or forgotten,” Therese said.
