Around $12,000, a new, one-day record, was collected by volunteers and Kauai Food Bank staff and board members at several locations around the island Saturday, Kauai Food Bank Executive Director Judith “Judy” Lenthall said. Lenthall and Paul Douglass, food bank
Around $12,000, a new, one-day record, was collected by volunteers and Kauai Food Bank staff and board members at several locations around the island Saturday, Kauai Food Bank Executive Director Judith “Judy” Lenthall said.
Lenthall and Paul Douglass, food bank board vice president, were the “rovers,” moving from Ishihara Market in Waimea to Ching Young Village Shopping Center in Hanalei to collect money that volunteers using fishnets gathered from donors.
At Ching Young Village Shopping Center, she caught a whopper, a $10,000, matching-funds check from John C. Ferry, president of Coldwell Banker Bali Hai Realty.
“It’s been a difficult time for the Kaua’i community, and our Bali Hai ‘ohana would like to help,” Ferry said of the donation.
While Larry Bowman of Falko Partners earlier pledged to match donations of up to $10,000 during the entire duration of the Kauai Food Bank spring food and fund drive, Ferry’s donation was just for Saturday’s one-day event.
With an unofficial total of nearly $12,000 just from Saturday’s collections (other sites included Kukui Grove Center, Waipouli Town Center and Wal-Mart) not including the Coldwell Banker match, the overall spring collection of money should end up in the vicinity of $42,000 or more.
“The Realtors were amazing this year,” with Coldwell Banker agents involved in the drive at Hanalei, and Century 21 All Islands agents volunteering at other sites Saturday, Lenthall said.
“That’s incredible,” she said of the $12,000 in donations collected in one day (not including change).
The exact totals won’t be available until later this week.
Board member John Sydney Yamane coordinated efforts at Ishihara Market in Waimea, and Kauai Food Bank staffers Kelvin Moniz (Kukui Grove Center) and Tony Koerte (Wal-Mart) were other coordinators.
But it’s the volunteers who make it happen, Lenthall said.
“We can’t do it without volunteers,” including some members of the Kaua’i High School football team, and parishioners at Kalaheo Missionary Church.
“Everybody had fun, and everybody was safe. The volunteers are what made it, and their enthusiasm,” she said. “The groups were awesome. It was good.”
See another story on Wilcox Health (Wilcox Memorial Hospital and Kauai Medical Clinic) donations on A5.
