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65 ‘Island
Treasures’ lauded
for good deeds
The Catholic Charities social
service agency tomorrow will honor
'unsung heroes, giving tremendous
time and effort'By Mary Adamski
Local treasured angels listed
Star-BulletinLots of people serve on church building and maintenance committees, and then there's Joseph Woo, who built a stone wall and patio at his newly opened parish, St. Jude's at Kapolei.
Every church has ushers, but few can match Lou Dubuque, who, armed with a golf umbrella on rainy days, escorts folks in from the parking lot at St. William's in Hanalei, Kauai.
Teaching is what Elizabeth Lum has done for a living for 26 years. Rather than lead to burnout, it's the skill she chooses to share in off-duty service at Blessed Sacrament Church at Punchbowl.
They are among the 65 volunteers to be honored tomorrow as "Island Treasures" before a crowd of more than 900 people at a Sheraton-Waikiki Hotel banquet. It's the fourth year that the Catholic Charities social service agency is sponsoring the awards for people nominated by their Catholic parish communities around the state.
"There are so many people who are unsung heroes, giving tremendous time and effort," said Catholic Charities director Jerome Rauckhorst. "Volunteers are the backbone of many of the services and programs in parishes."
The "Island Treasures" program, brainchild of agency board member Mary Lou Brogan, is "a celebration of church, of faith and of our response to the greater community." Catholic Charities operates an array of social service programs for the community, some of which are contracted by the state.
"It's precisely because we're Catholic that we serve everyone," Rauckhorst said. "That has always been part of the social mission of the church, to serve anyone who is in need."
The credentials of many of the treasured volunteers resemble the ripple effect of a rock thrown into a still pond.
They've started with one small service, and their involvement has spread.
Elizabeth Lum's husband, one of the honorees, is an example. Beyond his litany of activities at Blessed Sacrament, Robert Lum took classes to prepare to work at St. Francis Hospice where he helped feed and change beds for dying patients and is now doing bereavement work with families.
Rauckhorst praised Robert Lum, who also puts in hours fielding calls for help at the information and referral hot line at Catholic Charities. "It's trouble-shooting; it's crisis. You've got to be a quick thinker, logical, and develop resources in a hurry," and Lum's savvy after years as a city urban-renewal specialist makes him a valuable volunteer in the job, Rauckhorst said.
"I'm grateful for many things. I've been blessed with so many things, and to me it's payback time," said Robert Lum.
'The angel God sent us'
Some of the honorees are couples whose community service started as a match with their kids' activities: coaching soccer, teaching catechism classes, training altar servers.With the Lums, whose four children are grown, it became a lifelong pattern. Several "Island Treasures" got into volunteering after retiring from jobs.
"I'm retired, but the only time I'm going to keep still is when I sleep," said Angel Ramos, 71, former Kahuku sugar plantation worker and groundskeeper at the city golf course in Kahuku.
"When I was working, I said, 'I'm going to retire so I can do my thing.' It turns out to be the same thing!"
"He has never refused anything," said the Rev. Sydney Fernandes of St. Roch's Church in Kahuku.
"This is the angel God sent us ... effective, responsible, spontaneous." He said not a week goes by that he doesn't call on Ramos for carpentry, handyman chores or church decorating duty.
"It's not a duty; it's part of me; the church is part of me," said Ramos. "I come because I feel closer to Him. It's not the only time; when I stay driving, I pray, too."
Ramos brings his expertise in raising succulent plants into play as a volunteer.
He drives to the farthest end of the island each week to tend sansevieria plants at the Koko Crater Botanical Garden. He and others on the Kahuku Hospital auxiliary planted and care for plantings at the facility.
A grotto in the Kahuku churchyard is surrounded by Ramos' plants. Beside the statue of Mary is a waterfall and fishpond that Ramos installed two years ago.
"I've got thousands of plants at home," said the wiry gardener, a member of the Cactus and Succulent Society of Hawaii, preparing for participation in the major June plant show. "I like to make things grow; it's in my blood." A memory of his childhood in the Philippines is of his father hanging seeds in bamboo tubes over the stove where the heat helped germinate them.
'I'm just a vessel'
Ramos also has to tend wife Rose. Since she suffered a stroke, her care and the household chores fall upon him. Ramos expects some of their 13 children to be in the crowd tomorrow night. "I'll tell them, 'Now you know why I'm not home all the time!'"Elizabeth Lum's list of parish activities would be familiar to Catholics: lector, eucharistic minister, president of the parish advisory board.
But she instigated one innovation that more likely draws on her background as a Protestant. The Blessed Sacrament congregation will travel again to Kakaako Waterfront Park on June 11 for its celebration of Pentecost. "We'll have prayers, praise and testimony," she said. "This celebrates the birthday of our church, the descent of the Holy Spirit."
Celebrating the Holy Spirit's presence is personal to Lum. When she describes her energy as a volunteer, she says: "It's not me doing it; it's the power of the Holy Spirit that tells me to persevere. I'm just a vessel."
Volunteers from around the state to be honored tomorrow as "Island Treasures of Hawaii": Local treasured angels
Oahu
Julia Chung, Mikaele and Lenisi Fatai, Pilar Jucutan, Robert and Elizabeth Lum, Betty Lyons, Paula L. Masitalo, June C. Naughton, Bac V. Nguyen, Dottie Parente, Francis and Carmelita Phillips, Adele Santana, Lam Q. Tran and Jimmy Wong, all of Honolulu; Rose Baysa of Wahiawa; Rick and Joyce Betres and Lito Ricasata of Pearl Harbor; Ed Buno of Mililani; Bill Lyden and Joseph Woo of Kapolei; Lowena Nagamine and Doreen Watanabe of Ewa; Mitsu Papayoanou and Edward Schweitzer Jr. of Kailua; Jesse and Jeanet Pascua of Schofield Barracks; Jack and Raymonda Perry of Waianae; Angel M. Ramos of Kahuku; Katherine A. Sabog of Waipahu; Suzanne Schulte of Aliamanu Military Housing; Marlin and Madeline Zimmerman of Hickam AFB.
The Big Island
Hualani Brandt of Honaunau, Jane Cabilin of Kealakekua, Beatrice Correa of Kailua-Kona, Douglas and Ruth Dick of Kamuela, Joseph R. Lucas of Hilo, John Sanchis of Milolii.
Kauai
Ella Tamura, Kilauea; Richard and Alicia Coller and Ronald Silva, Kapaa; Lou and Nancy Dubuque, Hanalei; Bernice M. and Eric L. Nordmeier, Eleele; Joseph A. Soares, Kalaheo.
Maui
Jim and Edna DiFalco, Kihei; Winona Iwata, Wailuku; Mary Kaauamo, Keanae; Roland Kanuha, Hana; Eleanor "Momi" Labuanon, Paia; Jerrold and Eileen MacDonald and Sol and Henrietta Mahuna, Lahaina; Precila Peros, Wailuku; Virginia Perreira of Haiku.
Molokai
Paul Harada of Kalaupapa.
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