LIHU‘E — Central Pacific Bank employees helped kickstart the Kaua‘i United Way thermometer, Wednesday with a contribution of $3,885 which will be applied to the KUW 2011 Campaign. Scott Giarman, executive director of the KUW, said the amount reflects a
LIHU‘E — Central Pacific Bank employees helped kickstart the Kaua‘i United Way thermometer, Wednesday with a contribution of $3,885 which will be applied to the KUW 2011 Campaign.
Scott Giarman, executive director of the KUW, said the amount reflects a corporate contribution of $2,500 with the remaining amount from the CPB employees’ Campaign.
“One hundred percent of Kaua‘i’s CPB employees contributed to the 2011 KUW Annual Campaign and total employee contributions increased 58 percent from last year,” Giarman said.
“We are most grateful for CPB coming through for our community in this way. The CPB employees have been great supporters for a long time and this corporate contribution on top of the employees’ contributions tells me CPB understands that maintaining robust social services on Kaua‘i is good for CPB employees and their customers as well as the business environment in general.”
With the contribution, Giarman said the outstanding employee Campaign entitles the employee group to a pool pass at the Grand Hyatt Kaua‘i Resort and Spa, courtesy of Campaign Co-Chair Doug Sears.
The KUW Annual Campaign is currently at about 48 percent of its increased goal for 2011, Giarman said.
Lynnette Medrano-Stine, the Campaign Director and Community Services Liaison, said at this point last year, the Campaign was at 50 percent, just slightly ahead of where KUW is right now.
“We’re still doing really well,” Sears said. “But with so much need in our community, we feel the pressure to do much more and we need everyone’s help to get there.”
When Kathy Miyake of CPB made the presentation, the background reflected another way the bank is helping the community.
CPB, in partnership with The Salvation Army, has “Angels” available for adoption under the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program.
People are welcome to come in and “adopt” an angel off the designated Christmas tree, fulfilling its wish from a young child, or senior, and returning the completed adoption with an unwrapped gift for the angel to the bank by Dec. 18.
A simpler way is to just drop off any new unwrapped gift for a child ages 0 to 14 years old, or a senior citizen in the special Angel Tree gift bin.
For those requesting to make a monetary contribution, checks can be made payable to “The Salvation Army” and any of the CPB managers or staff will be happy to accept the contribution.
The holiday giving continues as Miyake said CPB will be participating in the annual Lights on Rice holiday parade with a supply of glow products for distribution.
Because of the parade, CPB will close at 2 p.m., Dec. 2 so the employees can prepare for the parade which starts at 6:30 p.m.
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@ thegardenisland.com.
