PO’IPU — Even though they worked on Christmas Day, like several hundred other Kauaians, firefighters at the Kaua’i Fire Department Koloa fire station enjoyed a hotel-cooked meal without having to leave the friendly confines of their station.
Angela Vento, general manager of the Sheraton Kauai Resort in Po’ipu, along with her husband, Art Vento, and son, Alexander Vento, who will turn 3 next month, as well as Anjali Kumaran and Denise Jones, delivered turkey dinners with all the trimmings around lunchtime Sunday.
They also provided meals for the KFD Ocean Safety Bureau life-guards at Po’ipu Beach Park, for the American Medical Response professionals from Medic 24 (Koloa), and delivered to or arranged for delivery of boxes of food to the Kalaheo, Hanapepe and Waimea fire stations, Angela Vento said.
Showing their appreciation at the station were members of the KFD Koloa fire station crew on duty Christmas Day: Capt. Mitchell Ikeda, Fire Apparatus Operator Steven Doi, and firefighters Melissa Hall and Kaipo Perry, and AMR’s Jeff Zukernik and Bill McLaughlin.
They planned to sit down for dinner later on Christmas Day, they said.
“Being down at the Sheraton, we rely on you all the time,” Angela Vento said to the emergency-response personnel. The response time is always fast, she added.
Vento said that although the emergency-response men and women are away from their families on Christmas Day, hopefully the fresh meals would brighten their day.
“This is our family,” Ikeda said.
“Crazy. My wife look better than you, Mitchell,” Doi said.
Vento said that, through an arrangement set up by leaders of the Poipu Beach Resort Association, those at the Sheraton Kauai Resort, Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa, and Marriott’s Waiohai Beach Club, take turns providing Christmas Day and New Year’s Day meals to emergency-response personnel on the South Shore and Westside.
Leaders from Marriott’s Waiohai Beach Club will make and deliver meals this Sunday, Jan. 1.
This was the first year for Sheraton Kauai Resort personnel to be in charge of the deliveries, said Vento.
“We really wanted to give back,” Vento said.
The menu included tom turkey, pork loin, a selection of salads including somen and ‘Oma’o greens, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, pumpkin pie, apple pie, and torte cake.
The scheduled 11:30 a.m. delivery was delayed a bit, as the personnel aboard the KFD Koloa rescue truck and fire truck, and the AMR ambulance, were responding to a minor medical call at that time.
Vento also announced that the emergency personnel would get certificates good for family portraits, courtesy of the real-estate professionals at Century 21.
