PUHI — What was supposed to be a routine volunteer venture turned into something special Tuesday at the Puhi self-help housing project. “These are the top managers,” said Stacia Viloria, one of the future homeowners at the self-help housing area.
PUHI — What was supposed to be a routine volunteer venture turned into something special Tuesday at the Puhi self-help housing project.
“These are the top managers,” said Stacia Viloria, one of the future homeowners at the self-help housing area. “I was surprised to see them, but I’m very happy that they’re helping us build our homes.”
Viloria, an employee of the Grand Hyatt Kaua‘i Resort and Spa, is a single mother and was helping the morning crew work on homes being developed.
“When we got here, we were surprised that one of our own employees is building a home here,” said Carla Thomas of the Grand Hyatt’s Human Resources department that coordinated the service project.
The project is part of Celebrate People Week, Thomas said, and meant more to the group of eight management people from the Grand Hyatt that turned out for the four-hours of work.
Larry Eells and Doug Sears, the executive chef and general manager, respectively, were working with Jane Dinnie and the housing superintendent, Jeff Brandenburg, installing flooring on one of the prospective homes.
Eells was sporting a special Boston Red Sox hammer that he said was loaned to him by Marisa Hurley, director of catering, who was applying primer to various roofing sections and trusses along with Thomas.
“This was a Christmas present to her from Doug,” Eells said. “I guess this is what happens when you have everything.”
The hammer was soon initiated into the work world with its white baseball markings joined by a red mark denoting six inches, the interval for applying nails on the perimeter of a flooring panel, and its polished head flashing in the morning sun as Eells and Sears started pounding nails following Dinnie who snapped the stud lines.
In addition to Sears and Eells, Hurley, Thomas, Katy Britzmann, Matt Humphreys and Fawaz Gharaibeh made up the volunteer crew.
“This is such a good thing, and having one of our employees being involved in the project just makes it that much more special,” said Hurley. “I guess we’ll try and organize more teams to help more.”
Viloria said in addition to having the Grand Hyatt leaders spend time helping homeowners in Puhi, Tuesday was also her son Kobe’s ninth birthday — a very special day.
