Society marks decade of giving aid to visitors
The Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii offers support in theft, illness or other trauma
By Rosemarie Bernardo, Honolulu Star-Bulletin – November 8, 2007
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To Families of victims of accidents or crimes, Jessica Lani Rich is a friendly face in an unfamiliar land.
“She was my angel,” Carol Plumlee said about the president and executive director of the Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii-Oahu Chapter.
Last summer in a swimming hole near Princeville, Kauai, Plumlee’s son Tucker complained of leg pain and sank.
He was pulled from the water and transported to Kaiser Medical Center in Moanalua, where he was placed in the intensive care unit with a spinal injury and kidney failure. Doctors later determined he had McArdle’s disease, a condition that affects muscle metabolism.
Rich went to the hospital and kept in contact with Plumlee’s family every day for two weeks, providing moral support until Tucker’s health improved.
“There’s people that come into your life when you need them so much, ”Carol Plumlee said by phone from Evergreen, Colo., “and they’re there to watch over you and help you with a situation that you can’t handle on your own.”
The Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii-Oahu Chapter is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a luncheon at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel Monarch Room. The society has assisted hundreds of visitors who faced adversity during their stays. …
About 30 years ago, Rich said, her father, Herman Scholtz, a former Honolulu police officer, died while he was on his honeymoon in El Salvador. His wife was struggling while swimming in the ocean, Rich said. As he assisted her toward shore, Scholtz suffered a heart attack.
His wife was able to make it out of the water safely.
“I have a lot of empathy and compassion for visitors because I know what it feels like, too,” Rich said. …