WAIMEA — Raelene Malama of the Kauai Veterans Memorial Hospital Medical Records department said she thought the Easter bunny outfit would be the one with the big head, Tuesday on the KVMH campus.
“But when it came, it didn’t have a head,” Malama said. “I had to ask my boss if it was all right to take off for the Easter egg hunt. My daughter, who works upstairs, said I was crazy to do the Easter bunny without a head.”
Instead, Malama relied on make up and her creativity to become the Easter bunny who greeted the preschool students from St. Theresa School to the Easter egg hunt at KVMH.
“We do an Easter egg hunt every year,” said Joanna Nishimura, KVMH recreation director. “This year, though, is different, because this is the first time we invited the preschool students to be part of the activity.”
The addition of the preschool students brought the KVMH residents out into the warm morning sun instead of being confined to the indoor activity room.
“This is similar to the egg hunt we do at the Samuel Mahelona Memorial Hospital where we include the preschool students from St. Catherine School,” said Josie Pablo, Mahelona recreation director. “KVMH wanted to do something similar so we invited the St. Theresa School students.”
Egg hunters from the preschool and KVMH residents scoured the front lawn, which was transformed into hiding places with prunings from the campus. The hunters were encouraged by staff and the Easter bunny, who flitted between groups of hunters in search of the “golden eggs” containing special prizes.
“We couldn’t do this without the help of Big Save/Times Supermarket,” Pablo said. “We don’t have an Easter bunny outfit so Big Save allowed us to use theirs for both the Kapaa and Waimea hunts. We are so fortunate the community supports our programs and our kupuna. And Raelene is so talented. Not only did she agree to be the Easter bunny, she created all the islands on the front lawn, and even made little craft take-homes for each of the 40 preschool kids.”
In addition to distributing the Easter goodies and visiting with the preschool students and residents, the Easter bunny distributed fresh-cooked hard boiled eggs with an invitation to have egg sandwiches for lunch.
Then, it was off to meet the new CEO for the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation Kauai Region, Lance Segawa, and outgoing CEO Peter Klune, with offers of Easter eggs.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
