LIHUE — Wednesday was a day reserved for heroes at the Kauai County Council’s weekly public meeting. But those heroes weren’t the lawmakers on one side of the room charged with making decisions that day. They were three people who
LIHUE — Wednesday was a day reserved for heroes at the Kauai County Council’s weekly public meeting.
But those heroes weren’t the lawmakers on one side of the room charged with making decisions that day.
They were three people who were, as some councilmembers noted, in a position to do the right thing at the right time and did so unselfishly, and in some cases, anonymously, expecting nothing in return.
The county offered thanks, praise and certificates to Kiah Shigeta-Koizumi, Max Watkins and Kaimi Kaneholani for their individual efforts to save four near-drowning victims at three North Shore beaches.
“I don’t really think I’m a hero,” Shigeta-Koizumi said. “I think it was the right thing to do.”
Kapaa resident Shigeta-Koizumi, a senior public health and women studies major at Oregon State University, is credited for saving a visitor from County Cork, Ireland on Aug. 7 while he was swimming at Moloaa Bay.
The man, according to Shigeta-Koizumi’s certificate, “became exhausted and felt his life was over, when out of nowhere, a yellow foam rescue tube was pushed into his arms by Kiah.”
He then draped himself over the flotation device as Shigeta-Koizumi assisted him to shore.
Charlene Koizumi, Shigeta-Koizumi’s grandmother, said it was serendipitous that her granddaughter saved a man who is from the same area where she studied while in Ireland.
“The guy was in shock when she (Shigeta-Koizumi) rescued him and I guess she recognized his accent, so she asked him at that time where he was from and he did say Ireland,” said Koizumi, who said that she did not believe her granddaughter’s story, when she returned home from the beach that day.
“He was in such shock that she didn’t get anything else from him … but it was a coincidence that she saved a person from where she studied for three months.”
The man was later admitted to the emergency room at Wilcox Memorial Hospital nearly 12 hours after Shigeta-Koizumi saved his life. There, the visitor told his story to Kauai Lifeguard Association President Dr. Monty Downs, who was identified by Downs only as “Patrick.”
“I said, ‘Wow.’ I mean, it made my night and this was about one in the morning,” Downs said. “I love it when people survive.”
Downs later shared Patrick’s story with The Garden Island in a letter to the editor about the anonymous girl who saved his life — a mystery that was solved several days later after Koizumi wrote a letter to the editor naming her granddaughter as the anonymous life saver.
“Nothing happens by accident,” Councilman Mel Rapozo said to Shigeta-Koizumi on Wednesday. “You were placed there by someone to be there at the right place at the right time and I’m sure the person in Ireland today is very grateful.”
Shigeta-Koizumi said he keeps in touch with Patrick through email and phone calls.
Those who know her, however, are not surprised by what she did.
Councilman Ross Kagawa, a teacher at Kapaa High School, said he can still remember when Shigeta-Koizumi played for the high school’s soccer team and recalled her tenacious character on and off the field.
“She was very gutsy and she would do anything she needed to do for her team,” Kagawa said. “She was a great goalie because she had good instincts and courage.”
Kaneholani, a County of Kauai water safety officer and doorman at The St. Regis Princeville Resort, was also recognized for his recent role in saving two swimmers who were swept out toward the Na Pali Coast near Kee Beach.
After he was unable to locate the swimmers in the surf, Kaneholani called the county’s Air One helicopter to assist in the search. Pilot later found one person clinging to the rocks on a nearby cliff and another climbing up the rocks to the Hanakapiai Trail.
“I just do what I do every day — try to help people out and make sure they have a good time here in Hawaii,” said Kaneholani, who named Duke Kahanamoku, Eddie Aikau, Titus Kinimaka and Kalani Vierra, as watermen who he looks up to every day.
“What everybody has in common is the aloha spirit and my mission is to spread it worldwide and to my kids.”
Vierra, county lifeguard supervisor, said Kaneholani has made leaps and bounds with the county’s junior lifeguard program as a coach for the team, which has held its state title for 10 years in a row.
“He really made some good influence structure in some of our kids today and over the last few years,” Vierra said. “It’s been an honor and a privilege working with this gentleman and I can see a bright future for him.”
Max Watkins, who was not at the meeting and could not be reached for comment, was honored for saving a 66-year-old man who was pulled out to sea by a rip current in October at Tunnels Beach.
Watkins, according to his certificate, was given a yellow rescue tube by a woman on the beach and swam out to the man in distress. Watkins was able to reach the distressed swimmer and brought him to shore.
• Darin Moriki, county government reporter, can be reached at 245-0428 or dmoriki@thegardenisland.com. Follow him on Twitter at @darinmoriki.
