How many different ways can you use a bicycle? Oceanic TimeWarner and the Boys & Girls Club figured out two ways Thursday. Marlene Matutino, the Oceanic Kaua‘i manager, and Dennis Cortez of the Oceanic installations department, donated four new bikes
How many different ways can you use a bicycle?
Oceanic TimeWarner and the Boys & Girls Club figured out two ways Thursday.
Marlene Matutino, the Oceanic Kaua‘i manager, and Dennis Cortez of the Oceanic installations department, donated four new bikes to the Lihu‘e site of the B&G Club.
Mike Miranda, program director for the Lihu‘e B&G Summer Program, said the four bikes will be joined by two other bikes a visiting couple donated to the organization.
“They will be given away at the end of the summer program,” Miranda said. “One will go to a boy, and one will go to a girl. Because there are six bicycles, two will be heading to the Kapa‘a Clubhouse and two will be given to the Waimea Clubhouse.”
Matutino said the project started as an internal team-building exercise spearheaded by Oceanic’s Marcia Taira of the Human Resource department.
Originally, there were two bikes involved in the exercise, but the response was so enthusiastic, they got another two bikes so the entire company could get involved in the team-building exercise.
“When we told Marcia we were donating the bikes to the Boys & Girls Club, she was so excited,” Matutino said. “She wanted to come for the presentation, but her schedule didn’t allow it.”
Matutino said the managers were broken down into teams that had to take the bike apart, rebuild it, and come up with a marketing plan for the bicycle.
“When they found out the bicycles were being donated to the B&G, I think the task took on even stronger meaning for them,” the Kaua‘i manager said.
The exercise goal was to get the Oceanic employees to set goals, have a plan, and work under a timeline to complete the task, Matutino said.
“It was all part of goal-setting,” she said, surprised when some of the students in the B&G Club summer program knew about goal-setting.
She relayed that experience to the students, explaining they could learn to work as teams to lessen the amount of work involved in a project before them.
Cortez said the experience went well enough that other employees in the company wanted to be part of the training.
“But when they found out the bikes were going to be donated to the B&G Club, they got a little nervous,” he said.
Each of the bicycles was certified and safety-inspected by John Tanner of Bicycle John before they came to the B&G Club, Cortez said. “They’re safe.”
Matutino reinforced the safety aspect, presenting one new helmet for each of the bicycles.
“We want everyone to be safe,” she said. “The rule is ‘no helmet, no bike.’”
In addition to the bicycle presentation, Matutino made sure she had premiums so each child present was also rewarded.
Tiare Puchert was one of the B&G summer program students who received a ticket before the rest of the students dissipated from the gathering.
“She gets a ticket because she picked up rubbish from around the place without even being told,” one of the program aides said.
Miranda explained the students will accumulate tickets based on good deeds being done during the program period.
On the final day of the summer program that was made possible through the efforts of Puna Dawson, resident services manager at Lihu‘e Court Townhomes, one boy and one girl will be presented a bicycle, Miranda said.
