A MESSAGE of GRATITUDE to:
ALL the community members who contributed to the annual Kohala Hospital Charitable Foundation Christmas pledge campaign. Your contributions, large and small, came to $20,725, including a generous donation of $10,000.
Betty and Michael Meinardus, for their successful 6th annual golf tournament, which raised over $43,000 this February. Organizing this tournament and the many volunteers is no small task! One golfer said to me…”I play in tournaments around the world and this is the BEST!” We are grateful to the participating golfers, the many sponsors from on and off island and the Meinardus family.
The retiring board members— Tommy Tinker, Susan Denman, Peter Denman, Elizabeth Grant and Jack Sunderland—whose combined tenure of service totals more than 30 years. We acknowledge the many hours of volunteer time and talent that went into KHCF from these long-term board members. We thank you for all your efforts, for you did your work well and raised an incredible amount of money for hospital equipment and the construction of the new emergency room.
Our new board members Elaine Christianson and Rhoady Lee. Elaine, a wellknown realtor and musician, has resided in North Kohala for over 30 years. She brings to the board a focus on communicating the foundation’s work out to the community, and on networking with new and long-time residents to continue the fundraising efforts of past board members.
Rhoady, an architect, comes to the board having recently served on the board of the Kahilu Theatre Foundation. He also helped North Hawai`i Hospice with their building projects and is Architect– of-the-Record for the Hawai`i Wildlife Center. He brings his expertise and knowledge of intricacies of nonprofi ts, especially around grants and major donors.
I am deeply grateful to everyone for their ongoing support of the Kohala Hospital Charitable Foundation in our common goal: a hospital we can all be proud of.
MAHALO NUI LOA, Giovanna Gherardi
KHCF President
Dear Editor,
There have been some changes to the Board of Directors of the Kohala Hospital Charitable Foundation: several members have retired, most after serving our community six to eight years in this capacity!
Since the summer of 2002, when the board was formed, over $900,000 has been raised, most of it during the tenure of these retiring members. Therefore, I would like to thank the following board members for their service: Peter and Susan Denman, Jack Sunderland, Greg Harman, Dr. Ana Garcia and Elizabeth Grant.
Peter was our long suffering secretary, and Susan was my very capable vice-president! Jack did all the heavy lifting when we had our silent auctions. Greg Harmon, one of our charter members (from 2002), graciously allowed us to use his pharmacy as a collections point when we held our silent auctions. Dr. Ana had a very positive impact on the board almost from the beginning.
I would especially like to thank Elizabeth Grant. Over the years she organized and ran four of our silent auctions by herself. She also would show up at 7:30 a.m. to take the minutes for our monthly meetings after getting in from her hotel job after midnight—plus she wrote almost all of our thank you notes. I could go on and on; thank you Elizabeth!
Last, but not least, I would like to remember dear Alan Axelrod— he left us one year ago this coming April 1—as one of our past presidents. The success of this foundation is his legacy!
I would like to wish the new foundation board and its president, Giovanna Gherardi, great success and satisfaction.
Aloha and mahalo for your time,