Inspiration comes from youth
Inspiration comes from youth
It had been 10 years since I visited the island of Kauai last, so I was looking forward to our trip with my son and AccesSurf Hawaii. We were honored to organize a special “Day at the Beach” event on Kauai for a medical technology group named Avanos Medical.
It was an incentive trip for the group, and a part of their trip included a community-service project based on the island. We had about a hundred of their volunteers to help us provide a day of ocean experiences for the local community of people with disabilities.
Assisted swimming, stand-up paddling and snorkeling were on the agenda for a beautiful day at Lydgate Park on the east shore of the island. The large pavilion gave shade for the many food trucks that they provided, and it also gave everyone a chance to enjoy a beautiful hula performance with live Hawaiian music.
However, the thing I most enjoyed was talking to this teenage girl from Kauai who just so happened to be in the water with us enjoying her Kamehameha Day holiday. She was so interested in what we were doing because she too was a volunteer for a nonprofit organization that took care of horses.
I did not get her name but she was so happy that she was about to turn 14 and then able to work during the summer for the horse stables. It was amazing to see so much love and compassion in this youngster.
She was also very informative about the area we were in and especially about the two-foot-long barracuda that kept swimming around us and looking for its lunch perhaps? However, she assured me that I was OK as long as I wasn’t wearing any shiny jewelry. Spoken like a true pro!
Eddie Murai, Honolulu
