Editor's Roundup
USDA people in the news

Daryl Kaluakini Atay has assisted a number of USDA customers during her 30-year career with the Department. But her recent interaction with a Rural Development loan borrower was the first time that her assistance might also be regarded as a 'high school reunion project.’

Atay is a community development specialist with the Rural Development field office in Wailuku on the island of Maui in Hawaii. In June 1999 an 80-year-old widow named Shigeko Hasegawa suffered a fire in her home of 40 years.

The fire, thought to have been caused by arson, destroyed the kitchen and most of the home’s rafters above the structure. In addition, the rest of the home and its contents were damaged by smoke, water, and the chemicals used in putting the fire out. The home’s mortgage had been paid in full, but the house, not up to code because of its age, was uninsured.

Once the smoke had cleared, Hasegawa found her way to the RD office in Wailuku. According to Irene Lam--RD’s community development manager for the islands of Maui, Molokai, and Lanai in Hawaii--Atay worked with Hasegawa to help her obtain a Rural Housing Service housing repair loan and, later, an RHS housing repair grant, to repair, improve, and modernize her three bedroom, one bath residence; make the dwelling safe and sanitary; and remove health and safety hazards.

“But after Mrs. Hasegawa obtained the financial assistance from our office,” Atay recounted, “I wanted to see if I could help her keep the costs of rehabilitating her home within her means.”

“So I got in touch with some of my high school classmates from the class of 1967 at Baldwin High School, here in Wailuku.”

Actually, it wasn’t too hard to reach two of her former classmates--Leilani Kukaua and Doreen “Pua” Gomes. “We have a routine of meeting every Tuesday to exercise and socialize, and we’ve been doing this for over four years,” Atay explained.

“But this time when we got together, I suggested that the three of us help Mrs. Hasegawa, and that we also try to make it into a class project and involve some of our other former classmates who still live in this area.”

So the three classmates agreed to start on their new 'class project’ right away. First, Atay--on her own time and on weekends--and her classmates packed up and then moved Hasegawa’s personal belongings into the house’s carport and another storage area so that the contractors could begin their repair work. “I’m sure Mrs. Hasegawa wouldn’t mind if I referred to her as a pack rat,” Atay quipped. “She definitely had a lot of items that are dear to her, and that we moved for her--very carefully.”

“And then, to relocate the heavy items,” she laughed, “we recruited our husbands.”

Atay also initiated the contacts with some of the various contractors--including a painter--who performed the repair work. Then, when the repairs were completed, the three classmates moved Hasegawa’s items back into her rehabilitated residence. They are currently helping her pack, sort, and store some items she obtained from her daughter.

“This particular experience had some extra meaning for me,” Atay observed. “All three of us have lost our mothers--and mine passed away most recently, in January 1999,” she said.

“So we, in effect, 'adopted’ Mrs. Hasegawa as our mother--and she likes it, since she has told us that the three of us are like family to her.”