• Swim meet to reunite Olympian with niece •
Clinic orthopedic team a winner •
Restoration of our community • Flu shots a
great public service
Swim meet to reunite Olympian with niece
RE: “SKA swimmers capture 6 state times” (Sept. 23), sports section
Thought I would just add a “special message” concerning Kaira Ka‘aihue. Kaira is my granddaughter and of course as every proud grandparent I am so happy of her accomplishments. In the article it states that SKA will be competing in the Bill Smith Invitational on O‘ahu Oct. 23.
The warm and fuzzy story behind this is Kaira is Bill Smith’s niece, my brother. My brother Bill is an Olympic gold medalist from Hawai‘i and our family has always been proud of his accomplishments. Bill was delighted to hear that Kaira qualified and is looking forward to seeing her at the meet in October. I shared with Bill when I saw him recently that his talent skipped two generations… thank goodness for grandchildren.
Stephanie Ion, Waimea
Clinic orthopedic team a winner
This morning I had a follow-up appointment with a doctor and as I approached the check-in window I could not help but hear this woman swearing at the girls at the window about how mad she was because their doctor was not going to see her husband due to the fact they arrived late at the clinic.
She was loud and rude and made everyone in the waiting area very uneasy. Her attitude was almost unbearable and if she didn’t stop I would have said something to her that I would probably have regretted.
The Kaua‘i Medical Clinic staff and doctors in the Orthopedic Department are first class and I would trust this doctor with my life. He has performed three surgeries on me since 2008 and has done such a perfect job that I would recommend him and his staff to anyone who needs an orthopedic surgeon on Kaua‘i.
He has great bedside manners, is very thorough when he explains things, makes one feel very comfortable and not afraid to undergo the knife and follows up with whatever it takes to make the patient feel like a human again without pain. He is the best that I have ever experienced in my 65 years of life and will continue to praise him as long as I live.
His physicians assistant is also the best and his nurse is also the sweetest and together they all make a perfect team. Thank you!
Lynette Niau, Anahola
Restoration of our community
As KPD Chief Darryl Perry accepts a renewed contract leading KPD, I reflect on the restoration of our community, and since Chief Perry being sworn in, September 2007.
As a page turns, what comes to mind is a quote by Voltaire, “Men who are occupied in the health to other men, by the joint exertion of skill and humanity, are above all the great of the earth. They even partake in divinity since, to preserve and renew is almost as noble as to create.”
Upon KPD Chief Darryl Perry being sworn in, some very serious, complex, and sometimes uncomfortable issues required addressing, and in order that our community might heal, be restored, and the very sacredness of this restoration preserved.
Required healing, too, was the internal and officer morale of KPD, and a gaining of confidence in KPD’s commander-in-chief. Retired four-star Army General Collin Powell wrote, “The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have lost confidence that you can help them or conclude that you don’t care.”
I calculated the challenges for Chief Darryl Perry would require nothing less than a leader with strong conviction, unwavering integrity, endurance and perseverance, even in the face of resistance. Standing along side other community members, I watching quietly, with guarded hope, that our community had found its day to heal, to be made a safer place, and that KPD officers would be given the deserving opportunity to meet their potential to serve our community in honest and robust fashion.
This page has turned, and the landscape provides a much more beautiful vista, all the while the story continues. Today, I do not ask, “Will lives be saved?” Today, I ask, “How many lives have been saved?” With the utmost gratitude to Chief Darryl Perry, and all KPD officers, thank you for your fine service. We are a most fortunate and blessed community because of you.
Deborah Morel, Kapa‘a
Flu shots a great public service
I would like to say thanks to the great pharmacists at Foodland in Princeville.
I have lived in several major cities and never had the kind of excellent service from a pharmacy as I do from the employees there. They are knowledgeable and friendly and especially Kawika, who patiently takes the time to help me get refills on my prescriptions.
The flu shots they have provided free to the public recently were such a great public service to the North Shore.
Ruth Elaine Turner, Princeville
