Shelter's renovations restore air of healing

WAILUKU, Maui Stacey Moniz already picked her bed out Tuesday evening at Women Helping Women Maui's newly renovated women's shelter.

"The room with the nice windows is mine," joked the organization's executive director.

After years of disrepair, the shelter has been updated with a brand new kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms, flooring and a host of other upgrades that have transformed the formerly ailing shelter. About 100 people were invited to witness the renovated facility Tuesday. The event served as a "thank you" to the many volunteers and organizations that lent a hand in the project.

"It takes your breath away," Moniz told the Maui News. "We never could have done this, but because of the many people that really care about us in this community, that's how this came together. There's so many people in this community that want to make our shelter beautiful.

"It's stunning," she said. "It looks like a model home in Wailea."

The effort to repair the over-100-year-old structure began July 2, when a task force of volunteers was formed: Deeana Davis, Laks Abraham, Renee Ward, Lena Staton and Sandra Florence. Davis, who served as chairwoman, said the shelter received generous donations of furniture and other items, and initially planned to place them inside and "call it a day."

"But we came in and realized we can't just put a Band-Aid on it," she said. "We knew we got to do this. It has to happen. We need to have the women and children and staff of the shelter feel valued and heal. When you walked in before, it was so many years and years of wear and tear, so we gutted the entire shelter with new flooring, painting, lighting.

"You name it, we did it."

The seven-bedroom, two-story house had four of its five bathrooms completely renovated with new tile floors, mirrors and granite countertops. Bedrooms were bright and welcoming with new mattresses, bedsheets, lamps, ceiling fans and dressers.

More than 4,000 square feet of new flooring was installed and three offices were cleaned and updated: a counseling room, house manager office and 24-hour Crisis Hotline intake office. A children's play room also was redone and will now remain open at all times, unlike previous years.

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Shelter's renovations restore air of healing