LIHU‘E — The volunteers saw things they never expected to see Monday, according to county Department of Water spokeswoman Faith Shiramizu. A group of DOW volunteers including DOW Manager and Chief Engineer David Craddick spent part of their afternoon preparing
LIHU‘E — The volunteers saw things they never expected to see Monday, according to county Department of Water spokeswoman Faith Shiramizu.
A group of DOW volunteers including DOW Manager and Chief Engineer David Craddick spent part of their afternoon preparing meals for about 40 people at the Kaua‘i Economic Opportunity Mana‘olana emergency homeless shelter and transitional housing program.
Headed up by Clarita Remigio, Karen Good, Carolyn Carveiro, Marites Yano and Fay Tateishi, the group put together the meal with donations from other employees.
This is on the heels of the DOW’s Angel Tree project which last week donated gifts to Child and Family Services for about 40 children and families. It was spearheaded by Jenny Lewis, affectionately called “Madame Engineer.”
Shiramizu said the efforts to help the community came after several of the DOW employees expressed an interest to give back to the community in appreciation and thankfulness for their many blessings and jobs.
The KEO is the DOW’s immediate neighbor, many of the volunteers walking across the park separating the two agencies. Shiramizu said after helping the CFS program, she felt it appropriate to help their neighbor “across the park.”
Volunteers spent part of their afternoon cooking, collating the various contributed baked goods from other employees, and putting together gift bags which contained gift certificates contributed by the Lihu‘e Subway.
“We’re giving them Sam Choy portions,” Craddick said. “That means instead of feeding one, one portion can feed two people.”
After delivering, setting up and serving the KEO clients, Shiramizu said the volunteers are already talking about doing more of these programs.
“It was really touching,” Shiramizu said. “The volunteers never expected to see what they saw, and after serving dinner, agreed they want to do more.”
