LIHUE — Three words summed things up for Aida Cruz when she was talking about a work day at Kauai Veterans Center and Kauai Veterans Museum Sunday:
“We need help.”
The KVC manager said when they host “Ground Day,” a general cleanup day, there will be plenty to do.
“We have church inside the Kauai Veterans Center, but have projects that need work on the outside. These include landscaping, painting sections of the center and other projects.”
People will gather from 9 a.m. until late afternoon.
“The more people we can get to help means we get to finish quicker,” she said.
Stu Burley, Kauai Veterans Council commandant, said work involved on Ground Day is separate from the re-roofing project recently awarded a grant from the county.
“We awarded contracts to people for the roof and the solar panels,” Burley said. “We need to work on the museum. The display cases are full of termites, and everything needs to be moved out. We want to have the carpet removed by the day’s end. That means everything needs to be packed and moved before we can even get to the carpet.”
Cruz said the veterans center has a good management team which includes Harvey Kinoshita as volunteer coordinator, Harvey Maeda as project manager,\
Wilbert Perreira as energy coordinator, Dan Abadilla as the community liaison, Mike Johnson as the chairman, and Tony Kment as the new facilities engineer, or operations manager.
“They need help. Dan is bringing people he works with,” Cruz said. “But there is a lot of work to be done, and as I mentioned, the more people we have turning out to help, the quicker the work gets done.”
She said KVC is also looking for a place to store the museum pieces during the renovation.
“These are historic pieces and need a temperature-controlled space,” Cruz said. “Ideally, we could use shipping containers which can be air conditioned and stored on the property during the renovations. We also need funds. We do fundraisers every year to benefit the Kauai Veterans Museum, and despite these, rising costs and these types of projects come up short.”
Cruz said the biggest problem with the Kauai Veterans Museum is the termites.
“We haven’t had a major treatment for termites since the museum opened,” Cruz said. “They’re eating everything from the inside out. We see the droppings, and treat for termites, but it’s a losing battle. We need to have major work done now.”
