BYU-Hawaii rewarded several staff members for their service with gift bonuses from an array of vendors in the Aloha Center ballroom on Jan. 21. “The main purpose is to recognize employees and their years of services here. We are trying to empower employees by giving them a lot of options so they don’t feel like they have to specially pick one thing or another,” said Taliana Pasi, a Human Resources support temp. Employees were given a voucher worth a predetermined amount of money depending on how long they had worked for BYUH.Once they received their voucher, the employees were turned loose on a ballroom full of local sellers and a few online stores. The medley of merchants sold jewelry, art, and technology from Best Buy and Apple. Lois Colton was a vendor at the showcase who sold photographic art she created herself. Her pictures depict images of Jesus Christ admiring the beauty of the nature in settings such as Laie Point and Gunstock Ranch. Another trader present was Evette Loo from the BYUH Bookstore, who said, “One of the biggest sellers has been gift cards. We only have a little bit of what we carry here so they want to get the card either for themselves or someone else.” Arapa Tameha has worked in recruiting and International Student Services for 20 years and said, “In previous years, the selection was much smaller, but it has grown significantly this year.” One shop that was added this year was Lani Jarvis’ Tahitian pearl jewelry stand. Jarvis’ stand seemed to draw the most attention from both the female employees and the wives of male staff members. Kanani Casey, wife of Billy Casey Jr., who is the BYUH Design and Construction manager, lightheartedly said, “I love the Tahitian pearl jewelry. I’m buying as much as his [allotment] will allow me. I’ll leave him $25 for him to buy his Hydroflask, though.” The jewelry company Me Ke Aloha was meant to be in attendance as well, but their representative was unable to make it, so a laptop was set up in their place to show their available inventory. Laptops were also set for staff to browse Apple’s website in case none of the present vendors were of interest to the employees. According to Pasi, the showcase was also designed to be a set-up for the Ho'omaika'i Dinner in March, where staff will be honored with the prizes they chose on Jan. 21, along with a plaque for their years of work and any other honors they have been awarded. Uploaded Jan. 28, 2016
Writer: Alex Maldonado
