WAIPOULI — Kaua‘i Shores’ General Manager Jennie Waiwaiole-Vega’s fears of “too much clothes” at the hotel’s garage sale were premature Saturday.
“These are all things brought in by the employees and community contributions,” Waiwaiole-Vega said. “I was afraid we had too much clothes, but look at how many shoppers there are. We had people lined up from 7:30 a.m. for the 8 o’ clock opening.”
Kaua‘i Shores, currently closed after the flow of visitors to Kaua‘i dried up with the effecting of the current quarantine rules, hosted the garage sale, with proceeds benefiting the Kaua‘i Independent Food Bank and the Hawai‘i Foodbank Kaua‘i Branch.
“We don’t have an idea of when we’re going to open,” Waiwaiole-Vega said. “But the food banks have been a tremendous help to our community, and especially the Kaua‘i Shores Hotel team members (and members of the Lava Lava Club) during these trying times. We are so happy to be able to give back to them.”
She said the hotel also has some funds that were raised for the Visitor Industry Charity Walk that did not take place due to the pandemic. These will also be added to the garage-sale proceeds.
Carino Munar is one of the hotel’s employees who capitalized on the garage sale to pick up items, including a bagful of clothes for his family.
“My last day of work was Dec. 6,” Munar said, loading a good-condition Christmas tree to his pickup load. “My family is shopping. I’m just loading what they buy.”
Tish Ruiz of the Hawai‘i Foodbank Kaua‘i Branch dropped in to see what kinds of bargains were available.
“My son had seven dollars to spend,” she said. “He ended up with some books and a picture for mom.”
Morgan Moises Lopez came with her family.
“We always do garage sales in a big way,” said Lopez, the former Hawai‘i Lodging &Tourism Association Kaua‘i branch coordinator. “They got some mochi by Patsy (Rapozo) so we had to stock up on those in addition to all the other deals we got.”
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
