Volunteers Needed To Assist July 21 At St. Francis Garage Sale
Hawaiian Electric Co. volunteers (from left) Duane Ogata, Wanya Ogata, Gayna Fujieki and Leroy Chincio help with packing up medical records at the West Oahu hospital. Photo from St. Francis Healthcare System.
After ownership of Hawaii Medical Center’s recently closed East and West campuses was returned to St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawaii in May, St. Francis has been preparing for the eventual sale of the facilities.
Toward that end, it will conduct a garage sale from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Ewa hospital. The public is invited to browse five floors’ worth of merchandise.
Items for sale include office supplies and chairs, file cabinets, tables, desks, bookshelves, computer tables, microwave ovens, large and small refrigerators and much more.
Volunteers are needed to help stage the equipment and assist shoppers in carrying purchases to their cars. Those interested should contact Patty Martin, director of volunteer programs for St. Francis, at 547-8134 or email her at pmartin@stfrancishawaii.or g. Groups also are invited to volunteer at the sale.
St. Francis Healthcare employees and those who have volunteered with the previous preparations can attend the sale from 9 to 11 a.m., before it opens to the public.
Since May, employees and volunteers have spent more than 800 hours clearing out the West Oahu campus and taking inventory of its assets. Last month, more than 50 Hawaiian Electric Co. employees and their families volunteered to help with inventory and staging items for the sale. HECO will volunteer again July 28 at the Liliha campus to prepare for a garage sale at that location, which is scheduled for late August.
Waipahu High School students also have assisted St. Francis with preparation for the garage sale.
More volunteers also are needed to start preparing for the East campus garage sale. Additionally, St. Francis will host an auction in September – both in person and online – for all of the medical equipment.
According to St. Francis spokesman Nathan Hokama, these preparations are not directly related to the ongoing negotiations and letter of intent with Queen’s Health Systems, which was announced in May.
“(Queen’s) is still doing its due diligence to see the possibility of acquiring and reopening the West campus hospital,” he explained. “That is still ongoing, so all of the garage sale activity is really just to help clear it out.”
Hokama added that this is one of the most immediate steps that needs to be taken to prepare the site for sale, and it’s currently the primary focus.
