“You don’t need to be old to volunteer,” said Sarah Sakimae, a senior at Kaua’i High School, as she and fellow seniors Jolene Okaneku and Sheryl Okamura worked on a project at the Wilcox Memorial Hospital gift shop. “I like
“You don’t need to be old to volunteer,” said Sarah Sakimae, a senior at Kaua’i High School, as she and fellow seniors Jolene Okaneku and Sheryl Okamura worked on a project at the Wilcox Memorial Hospital gift shop.
“I like ‘working’ here,” commented Okamura, “because you get to meet all kinds of people who come and go through this place all the time.”
Sakimae started volunteering at the hospital when she was in the sixth grade because at that time, both her grandparents were volunteers. That was six years ago.
“I just wanted to do it,” Sakimae said.
Okaneku and Okamura started doing volunteer duties when they were sophomores in high school. Okaneku’s aspiration of a career in the medical field motivated her, while Okamura’s mom, an employee of the hospital, came home from work one day and said the organization needed some volunteers.
Volunteering at the hospital has taught the girls many valuable lessons, the trio agreed. But, foremost is the feeling of community that cannot be gotten any other way. It is a reward in itself, the girls said.
Upon her volunteer tour six years ago, Sakimae was helping other volunteers, including her grandparents, with odds-and-ends types of errands. But she was “promoted” to help with the in-service desk, where she was the smiling face behind the counter who helped answer hospital patrons’ questions.
From there it was on to the gift shop. The girls agree they have a lot of fun helping people and working behind the counter, earning the right to even run the register.
Today, the girls look beyond the doors of the quaint gift shop tucked off to the right of the hospital’s main entryway and gaze into their future while surrounded in the ohana ambiance they have gained from helping in the hospital.
Their volunteering days at the gift shop are numbered. Sakimae has been accepted to the University of Portland. Okaneku is eyeing Pepperdine University as her choice for bringing her closer to her medical career. And Okamura is undecided between Juniata College or Vassar College.
Interested?
Additional information on volunteering at Wilcox Memorial Hospital is available from Betty Moore of the hospital auxiliary at 245-1160.
Staff photographer Dennis Fujimoto can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 256).
