[AT YOUR SERVICE]
Sailors make On a ridge high above East Honolulu, nearly 30 sailors from the destroyer USS Fletcher enthusiastically toil to the hum of weed-wackers devouring shrubbery.
youth camp
shipshapeWinners Camp will have
a long-term home, with the
help of volunteers from
the U.S. NavyAT YOUR SERVICE
By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-BulletinSince returning home in February from a six-month deployment, the crew has voluntarily given up its Saturdays to convert four run-down, graffiti-decorated Hawaii Army National Guard buildings into the future home of Winners Camp.
Petty Officer Ralph Hein, Fletcher's fire controlman, said he doesn't mind the weekend extra duty because it's for a good cause. "It helps give kids a sense of belonging."
Delorese Gregoire, who founded Winners Camp 15 years ago, is grateful for all the help because her program depends on volunteers and donations for survival.
Her nonprofit program has been teaching leadership skills and personal responsibility to island teen-agers through one-week social, academic and personal-enrichment programs. More than 80,000 students benefited from her program, with many returning to serve as volunteer staff members.
Until this year, however, Winners Camp never had a permanent home. "We were homeless for 15 years," Gregoire said.
The leadership camp rented space from other organizations and even set up a tent city in Waimea Falls Park.
That was until Kamehameha Schools stepped in last year and agreed to let her use the 3.5 acres on Kamehame Ridge overlooking Hawaii Kai for 40 years for free. In exchange, Kamehameha students and faculty members will be included in the program.
Gregoire, 54, then put out the word -- to Rotarians, Boy Scouts, Lions Club and the military -- that she needed help and donations.
Lt. Cmdr Matt Dixon, executive assistant to Rear Adm. Robert Conway, was approached by Stanley Sondgrass, a retired senior chief hospital corps and a member of Surface Navy Association. Dixon and Lt. Al Hernandez, repair officer for Naval Surface Group commander, agreed to round up volunteers.
Cmdr. Dell Epperson, USS Fletcher commander, said his crew, probably influenced during the time they spent in East Timor earlier this year, embraced the community service project.
"This is my fifth ship," said Epperson, a 19-year Navy veteran, "and this is the most community-minded crew I have served with."
In East Timor, his entire crew was involved in rebuilding a community center that had no water, no electricity and had been destroyed during the country's civil war.
"When the crew saw the difference it could make," Epperson said, "that lit a fire under everybody."
In March, when the Fletcher's first group of volunteers showed up, there were more than 60 sailors and family members. Gregoire's goal is to open the ridgeline camp in August, but Dixon believes that Navy volunteers will be on hand through the end of the year.
Besides the Fletcher's crew, sailors from the USS Hopper, USS Russell, USS Paul Hamilton and other Navy shore commands have lent their muscle and sweat to the project.
The four buildings, which used to house the National Guard's Nike missile crews and later its Officer Candidate School, has been completely gutted and is being repainted. Camp organizers now have a security guard who lives on the premise.
Gregoire is seeking donations and building supplies to replace lighting fixtures, window frames and glass jalousies and a roofer to re-roof the four buildings.
"Eventually, we are going to need donations of other supplies like carpets and office equipment," she said.
Her hope is to be able to admit 60 teen-agers and 20 staff members to each session.
Those interested in the program or wishing to donate money, materials or manpower, can get more information from her Web site www.winnerscamp.com, or by calling 366-8008.
Igancio Fleishour, who graduated from the program in 1988 and returned to become a counselor, said the program taught him "community service, to be respectful and courageous and to be able to work through adversity."
When he entered the program at the age of 17 he was living in Waianae taking care of four younger brothers, who had no mother and a father who was dying of cancer.
"Having no mother and trying to keep it all together was hard," Fleishour said, "and I got into trouble." The program, he said, helped him "stay focused and I left with a feeling of self-powerment."
Fleishour said he returned to school, worked to raise his C average to 3.5 and graduated from Waianae High School in 1990.
He then enrolled In Kapiolani Community College and is one semester shy of graduating while working full-time.
Ever since then he has been "wanting to give something back to the community."
Gregg K. Kakesako can be reached by phone at 294-4075
or by e-mail at gkakesako@starbulletin.com.