Page 12 - MidWeek - Jan 4, 2023

12 MIDWEEK JANUARY 4, 2023
MIDWEEK COVER STORY
STORY BY
PHOTO BY
LAWRENCE TABUDLO
It’s a tough job as president and CEO of Visitor Aloha Society of Hawai‘i, but Jessica Lani Rich relishes her duties as a lifeline for tourists and a ray of light in the local community.
PKAREN IWAMOTO olice get the call on a
teer Robert Gentry and they stay until the visitors are giv- en the all-clear — at around 2:30 a.m.
me a million dollars to have the job that you have,’” Rich says. “Not everyone can do this.”
“I comforted the husband and watched the children (while they moved to another hotel room). It’s typical when something like this happens, they don’t want to stay in the same room,” Rich says. “Then, when he was ready, I helped put him in touch with a local mortuary that special- izes in helping visitors.
Thursday afternoon:
Amanwithagunhas barricaded himself inside a hotel room in Waikīkī.
Not every situation is this dramatic — and thankfully none of the visitors were hurt — but as a point agency for tourists facing unforeseen adversity, VASH is not unfa- miliar with crises. In today’s social-media-saturated world, where a bad experience can go viral, VASH is doing its part to protect Hawai‘i’s rep- utation.
Yet despite the emotional toll, the work can be incredi- bly rewarding.
Officers begin getting peo- ple — many of them visitors — out.
“I think any time in life you feel you’ re doing something meaningful it creates a posi- tive experience,” says Gentry. “It’s not an ego thing ... it’s simply an affirmation of how we are committed to aloha.”
Soon, Jessica Lani Rich’s phone starts ringing.
“The police called me and said, ‘Can you help us relo- cate 90 people?’ ” says Rich, president and CEO of Visitor Aloha Society of Hawai‘i. “I said, ‘Can you give me 10 minutes?’”
Although the Aloha State remains one of the safest places to travel, Rich and her volunteers provide support for everything from thefts and ac- cidents to assaults and deaths.
Jessica Lani Rich (left) and Visitor Aloha Society of Hawai‘i board member Jerry Dolak (right) with visitor Bruce Wiley (center) whose wife died unexpectedly while they were vacationing on Maui. PHOTO COURTESY VASH
from the Honolulu Police Department, VASH operates on a $285,000 budget from Hawai‘i Tourism Authority that is supplemented by do- nations from businesses and
In the weeks before the standoff in Waikīkī, VASH was there for a couple from Texas whose 17-year-old son died in a paragliding accident and helped a man whose wife passed away unexpectedly in her sleep on the final night of their vacation — leaving him with their two young children.
“With children it’s always the hardest, but you know, if I let my tears come down in this situation, I will be of no help to this man or his two young children.”
She phones the head of security at Hilton Hawaiian Village and they make a ball- room available for evacuees. Then, she reaches out to the owner of Charley’s Taxi, who sends about 20 cabs. She also calls longtime VASH volun-
the public.
“Every single case is dif-
Instead, she focuses on the concrete, practical steps she can take to ease the burden.
As a nonprofit established in 1997 by the Rotary Club of Honolulu with support
ferent but at least every two months I have some friends come up to me and tell me, ‘Jessica you couldn’t pay
In the case of the father, she also helped change his flight. A family of four had flown in, but only three would be flying out.
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