Playhouse finds real home
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Staff Writer
A playhouse built to raise money for the American Cancer Society during an auction at a Kailua Relay for Life fund-raiser in July has finally found a home thanks to the donations of a Honolulu man and a heavy equipment company.
Advertiser library photo
Hale O Keiki, a Hawaiian plantation-style playhouse, was purchased for $15,000 by the Honolulu man and donated to HUGS (Help, Understanding & Group Support), a nonprofit organization that supports the families of seriously ill children. The buyer/donor remains anonymous.
Kane'ohe Yacht Club Fishing Fleet fund-raiser coordinator Charlie Schmucker and wife Dianne show the playhouse before it was delivered to a Wai'alae Avenue site.
Donna Witsell, executive director at HUGS, said when she first learned that several nonprofit organizations were being considered for the playhouse she hoped HUGS would get it. She knew the playhouse could be incorporated into HUGS programs that give parents a break by caring for their ill children and their siblings.
The children of HUGS haven't yet seen the playhouse because no activities have been planned at the site since it arrived. They'll see it for the first time in October.
"I just knew that our kids would go bonkers over it," Witsell said, adding that everyone was excited and grateful to the donors that made it possible.
When members of the Kane'ohe Yacht Club Fishing Fleet decided to build the structure and auction it to raise money for the cancer society, they didn't realize how much of a logistical challenge there would be in moving the building, said Charlie Schmucker, coordinator of the project.
Several buyers pulled out of the deal when they couldn't get the building on their property because of obstacles such as a long, steep driveway. Schmucker had even considered airlifting the playhouse to one property but couldn't find a helicopter that could lift the 4-ton building.
Weeks went by, with Schmucker trying to find a buyer who had the right property for the 12-by-28-foot building that is 12 feet high and was built on a trailer.
When HUGS was finally chosen to receive the playhouse, the building and trailer were delivered to the group's property on Wai'alae Avenue, but Schmucker said he was unable to get the playhouse off the trailer last weekend.
Luck was with him. A few calls to listings in the Yellow Pages brought the free services of a company with a crane able to lift the playhouse off the trailer.
The crane company also wants to remain anonymous, Schmucker said.
"It was quite involved all the way through," he said. "It really wasn't easy."
The ordeal hasn't discouraged the fishing fleet though, Schmucker said.
The fleet raised a total of $25,476, including the sale of the playhouse, at this year's fund-raiser. When Schmucker first became involved with the event five years ago, he donated fish he had caught and raised $120. Since then he and the fishing fleet have tried to surpass the amount they raised the previous year.
Next year the group will probably build something smaller, he said — maybe two Hawaiian-style gazebos that can be easily transported and lifted off a trailer.
Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.
