Chelsey Rivera of Koloa School said it’s hard when students break their slippers while in school.
“A lot of the parents work, and who carries an extra pair of slippers with them?” Rivera said. “Koloa Elementary School is very appreciative of the gift provided by Marianne Martin and the Whaler’s Cove. They delivered four cartons with each carton containing four packages of slippers. We are in the process of counting out how many slippers came in.”
Martin said the effort was not a slipper drive, but a suggestion that people check with schools in their communities to see what kind of help they can help with.
“It (the slipper delivery) was simple,” Martin said. “I called the school to see what they needed help with, and they said when kids break their slippers at school, they have a few loaners at the nurse’s office, but not near enough to handle the rate of breakage.”
That was easy enough.
“I just said ‘Super,’” Martin said. “I ordered them from Amazon, and just delivered them.”
Martin said on previous phone inquiries, the school said they needed ‘ukulele, so she delivered a bunch of the musical instruments until they met their needs.
“Then, they told me there were some kids in school that couldn’t afford backpacks,” she said. “So, I brought a lot of backpacks to the school. This time, they said ‘slippers.’”
Martin said she was surprised to learn that “our” school needed slippers.
“Surprise, but not surprised,” she said. “We’ve all experienced that moment when your slipper breaks. And when you’re stuck at school, what do you do? The staff at Whaler’s Cove pitched in and we bought lots of slippers for the Koloa Elementary School.”
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 808-245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
