Posted on: Friday, November 26, 2004
Bikers deliver meals, aloha to elderly
By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
Thanksgiving Day found 92-year-old Dorothy Teves Pregil out raking leaves in her Kalihi Valley yard when the roar of a dozen motorcycles made her look up and smile expectantly as the leather-clad bunch once again delivered her hot holiday dinner.
Lanakila Meals on Wheels Now, they're as much a part of the holiday as the pumpkin pie they bring. "I look forward to it every year," Souza said.
Development director Marlena Willette said that Lanakila Meals on Wheels delivered more than 1,100 hot meals to the homebound across O'ahu yesterday with the help of some 300 volunteers.
This was the first year the Lanakila Meals on Wheels program operated out of a temporary kitchen in Pearl City. The different set-up was caused by the renovation and expansion of the main site and kitchen on Bachelot Street in the Liliha area. When that's done, Willette said it will double the number of meals that can be prepared to meet the demands of Hawai'i's aging population.
Lanakila Meals on Wheels welcomes donations and volunteers to help deliver meals to the elderly and frail. Federal and state money pays for the weekday meals but not for weekend and holiday deliveries. People also donate to the "Adopt a Senior" program.
The program began as a lunch wagon in A'ala Park 33 years ago and has grown to 118 daily routes across O'ahu. A holiday meal with all the trimmings delivered to the doorstep costs $6.
With Thanksgiving under their belt, Lanakila folks already are planning for Christmas. They are looking for "Santas for Seniors" to help with contributions and to deliver Christmas meals to homebound seniors.
Those interested can call Marlena Willette at 356-8572 or visit www.lanakilahawaii.org. "Thank you, dear," Pregil said when she received her neatly wrapped plate of turkey, stuffing, mixed vegetables, cranberry sauce, roll and pie on the side. She beamed at the volunteers. "Beautiful, so beautiful, all you boys and girls," she said.
Biker Felix Leopoldo has been volunteering for 20 years. He likes helping out and seeing the faces of the people who receive the deliveries. Leopoldo runs FNL Sales, a fish wholesaling business, and is president of the Minotaurs Motor Cycle Club.
Biker Jesse Baker, of the Vietnam Vets Motorcycle Club, has been delivering holiday meals for nine years. His motorcycle club helps out with a lot of child-centered activities each year: Toys for Tots, school supply drive, delivering toys to hospitals.
He's 73 and can easily pass for a decade younger. Baker remembers that a similar program helped his own mom when her eyesight got so bad she couldn't even microwave her own food.
"This one is special to me," Baker said. "Sometimes people tend to forget the older folks, and we're all going to get there."
Ed Ledesma, of Kalihi Valley, welcomes the help for his 85-year-old mother-in-law, who has Alzheimer's disease. "It's very good," he said.
Ledesma said the bikers deliver a lot of goodwill with the meals. "It removes that rough and tough kind of image," he said.
For Seraphine Carvalho, delivering meals is more than just a holiday experience. He volunteers two days a week at Lanakila carrying hot meals to the homebound.
At age 86, he is sometimes older than those receiving the meals. But that doesn't stop him. Carvalho, who lives in downtown Honolulu, yesterday picked up meals to take to Kaimuki and Manoa.
He made sure to show up after some of his regulars said they didn't get a meal on Thanksgiving last year. "They told me, 'Last year we waited for the food and nobody came,' " he said.
For Carvalho, who is retired from driving rigs for Aloha Petroleum, volunteering helps keep life interesting. "I don't have no woman. I don't want to just sit around and look at the walls and watch TV," he said.
Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.
Pregil smiled and walked to the driveway to greet the group from bikers' associations across the island. Her daughter, Mary Jane Souza, said the bikers were something of a shock the first year they showed up with the turkey and trimmings.
It takes many hands to produce Thanksgiving meals intended for homebound seniors. An estimated 300 volunteers worked with Lanakila Meals on Wheels to prepare and deliver the meals this year.
Willette said the Lanakila program is the largest program of its kind in the state. The organization offers group dining at 33 community sites and home-delivered meals to people across O'ahu. That adds up to about half a million meals a year, she said.
How to help
