Page 6 - MidWeek - March 1, 2023

6 MIDWEEK MARCH 1, 2023
DCherishing Our Kūpuna Caregivers
Dear Esther,
President and CEO of the Arcadia Family of Com- panies Suzie Schulberg responds, “Thank you for sharing Ms. Esther Geil’s recognition of our Arcadia staff. We appreciate Ms. Geil taking the time to ac- knowledge the work of the employees. The employees at Arcadia and through- out the Arcadia Family of Companies believe in and embrace the work that we do which is to improve the lives of Hawai‘i’s kūpuna and provide them the best quality care and services. We are proud of all that they do and celebrate every employee.”
Is there someone you’d like to thank? Mail letters to Mid- Week c/o Mahalo Nui at 500 Ala Moana Blvd. Ste. 7-500, Honolulu HI 96813, or email mahalonuiwithdarah@gmail. com. Please include your name, where on the island you reside, your phone num- ber and, if possible, the phone number of the person you’ re thanking so she can contact him or her. Darah Dung hosts “The Pet Hui” and “Island Driver,” both on Spectrum OC16.
ear Darah,
I love your column and would like to start
by thanking you and MidWeek for having it and for giving us the precious chance to thank and read about the people that make our lives so much better.
They manage, miraculously, to help us remember what all of the different people wanted, while continuing
to treat us with kindness, skill and helpfulness.
I feel a real need, and so much appreciate the opportu- nity you provide, to thank the employees who work at the Arcadia residence where I live. They bring so much happiness to me and the other residents every single day. The waiters and waitresses, who generally have about 30 people to take care of all at once, treat us all with such patience, friendli- ness and good spirits for every meal, three times a day. They typically have many people at once asking them for things, from drinks to desserts to spe- cial orders, and as they are on their way to take care of those, someone else asks them for something else.
We are guarded by a securi- ty team that not only treats us so well, as do all the employ- ees, but that seems to know all of us and everyone and every car that comes onto the prop- erty. They tell me that it is my son’s car coming, as it is just pulling into the driveway, even though they haven’t seen it in weeks and I can’t even recog- nize it yet.
Instead of telling us to wait our turn or ignoring us, they manage, miraculously, to help us remember what all of the different people wanted, while continuing to treat us with kindness, skill and helpfulness. They are amazing and a joy to be around.
The maintenance staff, which doesn’t stop working from the moment they arrive until eight or more hours later, are of the same quality, using their brains and brawn to help us without many individual, as well as community, main- tenance needs. Meanwhile, the receptionist on duty calm- ly and cheerfully handles three things at once, remaining pleasant and helpful to all of us and our guests all day long.
We are also helped by a Pro- grams Department that manag- es to keep us entertained and informed all week long. For a long time, there were only two individuals doing all the work of the department. I don’t know how they did it. Now there are three, and none of them seems to have an idle moment.
I can’t tell you how thank- ful I am to the wonderful em- ployees here and the staff that chooses and trains them. I feel very lucky to be helped every day by such people. Thank you for letting me let these hard- working and special people know how very, very much they are appreciated.
With love and thanks,
Esther Geil Mānoa