HILO, Hawaii–During CU Hawaii’s All Employee Conference, at which all employees as well as board members were present, members were also in attendance, the credit union conducted what it called a “very emotional and heartwarming” project.
Seventeen teams made up of CU Hawaii employees were each given the task of building a bike, which they thought would be nothing more than a team building project. What the credit unoin’s staff didn’t know is there were 17 children ages 6 – 10 in a private room eating cookies, drinking juice, and designing their own Thank You cards.
“These children didn’t know why they were doing a thank you card; just that they were about to have a big surprise,” the credit union said.
Nine of the children came from the Queen Lili’uokalani Children’s Center here in Hilo, Hawaii and eight of the children came for the Boys and Girls Club of the Big Island. All of these children are underprivileged and may have never owned a bike, let alone a new bike, the credit union said.
“When the two came together it was priceless,” CU Hawaii said. Two other companies were also involved as volunteers: Mid Pacific Wheels, which inspected the bikes, and Enterprise Truck Rentals, which transported the bikes to the two receiving agencies for the children to pick up.