GOOD DEED - PROJECT GRAD

**THIS HAPPENED AWHILE BACK BUT IT’S STILL A GOOD DEED**

For the past 2 years, Anabelle, and a few of my family members have been heavily involved with The Maui High School Project Graduation. They’ve spent many days, nights, and weekends fundraising for this one momentous night in the graduate’s life.

After months and months of prepping and planning, grad night was coming upon us. And with grad night, came a full day of setting up the tables, chairs, decorations, and activities of the evening’s festivities. The graduates were to spend their evening at Tsunamis Nightclub at the Grand Wailea Resort & Spa.

When we got there, the venue was practically bare; it was dark, the lights neon and strobe lights were missing bulbs and filaments, the tables were dusty and the chairs looked really dated. It was a hard sight to see because a few years ago, Tsunamis was the spot to be at. After not seeing the inside for so long, it quickly got nostalgic. Nonetheless, we all began helping. There was so much to do yet everyone needed to go home and pray they’d get a powernap because they’re in for an overnight stay. We all felt the time crunch but pushed through it. There was a lot to do. Since we had a layout on paper, we had a general idea of where everything needed to go. We started by placing the tables for each of the nights activities. We needed to set up spots for scrapbooking, massages, manicures, waxing, tattoos, hair stencils, and making luggage tags. We also needed to set up the areas where the magician would perform, tables for the DJ, tables for the XBOX systems, and a spot for the photo booth and basketball set up. There were a few more things that were there that night but I can’t remember. From there our group had to carry the tables, chairs, and barstools from one end of the club to the other. After those were in place we began to decorate. While the tables and chairs were being set, another team was hard at work blowing up a few hundred balloons as another team was setting up the table centerpieces. The hardest part of the day was yet to come. On top of the many things that were there, the graduates were also getting the chance to win some of their money back in a money machine. Being that Tsunamis is a club that’s sort of in a cellar; we didn’t have the luxury of simply rolling in this goliath of a machine. We first had to lug it through a maze of corridors, look for a service elevator in this maze, wheel it down to the floor Tsunamis was on, only to have the machine be too big to fit through the doorways. And yes, then we had to do everything in reverse. Luckily, we found the fire escape doorway big enough to help us and we got the machine in. By that time, just about everything that remained to be done was quickly accomplished.

It was definitely a tough day to put everything together but it was well worth it. Because I didn’t get to stay overnight (I didn’t want to), I only had the chance to hear some of the nights happenings. For the most part, the entire night was a success. From what I was told, many of the students had the time of their lives. The topping on the cake for me was hearing from another graduate from another school say that they heard the Maui High Project Grad was so awesome and their class was talking about it all night at their hiGgh school’s Project Grad. This event was a year in the making and it gives me pleasure that the kids, excuse me, men and women, enjoyed their evening. Congratulations Maui High School Class of 2011!!