Posted on: Friday, April 22, 2005

Salvation her secret to success

By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

When the Salvation Army was looking for a way to get its message out, Bernie Koizumi was the first to come to mind.

"Bernie is the standard-bearer for what people's lives could be like after drugs," says Daniel de Castro, public relations director for the Salvation Army. "We talk about changing lives, and she has done that for herself and continues to help others going through drug treatment."

Koizumi is featured in a 30-second spot for the Salvation Army that started running on Oceanic Cable stations last week.

For the past five years, she has run a successful and growing janitorial business, hiring workers who are graduating from drug treatment programs.

"If you put an addict in a job working with straight people, it's not going to work because that's two different worlds," Koizumi says. "We all came from the same place. We understand what people are going through. It helps build their self-confidence, their self-will, their thinking. And then eventually, they can move on, step away from what we offer and gradually get back into society to go get a normal job with normal people. But this is a start here."

Her own start was rocky, with many failures and setbacks.

Koizumi says she spent 15 years of her life "constantly trying to get clean and constantly getting high." It took her five tries in rehab before she finally "saw the light."

"I heard my kids crying and begging and telling me that I promised I would never leave them," she says. Her daughters were 5, 3 and 1 at the time. "Their voices stuck in my head where I couldn't get it out, even when I was high. I couldn't take it anymore. That was my bottom"

Koizumi spent almost three years in the Salvation Army's Women's Way program, begging to stay on even after graduating because she wanted more time to get her life together.

She never planned to open a janitorial service. The business opportunity just fell into her lap. She had been cooking for a drug court program as part of her treatment. After making meals, she would clean the kitchen.

"The management at that time was impressed with the cleaning so they asked me to take over cleaning the building."

In a year's time, she had taken over the janitorial service of several other buildings under the management of Homeless Solutions. She now has five full-time employees.

"The people make it really good to come to work because you see the progress, you see the growth. Everybody gets close, everybody watches each other's back."

In a stroke of inspiration, she named her cleaning company B. Clean.

"It has a dual meaning," she says. "We clean buildings, and in order to receive your blessings in life, you have to be clean."

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.