Longs Ponahawai
CVS has shown it’s greed again by closing down one of the best pharmacies in Hilo. Now they are showing their loyalty to my 20 years of shopping by sending my account across town to 111 E. Puainako Street, when I live in upper Kaumana.
First they said they were going to do something completely not thought out by sending all of us to the surgery center’s Longs, which only has a walk up window.
There is hardly an open parking space except for a couple of ADA slots. How would that store handle thousands of customers that Mark and Lisa, Lita, Reena and Tisha have worked so diligently to keep up with CVS’s slicing dedicated employees’ hours so us loyal customers could stand in longer lines?
The awesome employees were the reason I paid higher deductibles than my primary medicare plan was set up for and because I always had to wait in longer lines at the four large Longs retail stores, where there are rarely more than two or three checkout stands open.
Now that we have stayed loyal to you, you cinch that corporate belt yet another notch to keep those bonuses high, not us customers.
Behold Hilo, Target, Safeway, KTA, Walmart, Shiigi, online and many others await your business. Think hard, my fellow Hiloans. Does CVS care about us, or their No. 44 ranking in the Fortune 500?
They just proved to me that their CEO’s $20.4 million annual compensation is more important than Hilo’s elderly and disabled citizens. We are not sardines, we are lovable humans that can no longer drive all over town and park and wait like we use to.
So, so long, Longs. We don’t need Longs’ longer lines getting any longer.
Paul Mikul
Hilo
Fight for our future
Our youth are in crisis.
Hawaii County recently launched a Fentanyl Task Force in response to an increase of 200% in overdose related deaths last year. From March 2020 to October 2020, nationwide mental health-related emergency department visits increased 24% for children ages 5 to 11 and 31% for those ages 12 to 17, compared with 2019 emergency department visits, according to CDC data.
Mental health issues exacerbated by the pandemic, combined with long-festering substance use disorders in our community, are colliding in our youth population in a way that has long-reaching consequences for our entire island.
Hokupa‘a has always been a nonprofit that brings the community together around our young people. Our kuleana to empower them — our future leaders and agents of change — is the North Star that unites us.
However, in 2022, we’ve pivoted our focus to a key solution we feel can help address the many issues our youth are facing — social-emotional well-being.
In order for our students to thrive, their health and stability is foundational — and a complex mix of social, economic and pandemic-related pressures has made that foundation precarious. We know educators, caregivers and families are under tremendous strain, and only when healthy and whole are they able to provide the support our haumana need to thrive.
We at Hokupa‘a believe these issues are critical for our community to address, and commit to acting as convenors and collaborators in this important work. This year our renewed focus is to come alongside schools, communities and families to work hand-in-hand. We are conveners, connectors, catalysts and capacity-builders. We support cross-sector collaboration and finding meaningful solutions to these growing problems.
Our call-to-action to you, our community, today is this: Look for us. And then join us. You can find us at www.hokupaa.org.
Our mission is far-reaching, and we need to be in many places at once. Follow us on social media, subscribe to our newsletter, volunteer for our outreach opportunities. Together, we can be the safety net that many of these youth need to reach for a brighter future.
Kamela Souza
Coordinator, Hokupa‘a
