A lot of people on Maui work very hard, make no money, and do a lot of good for others at their own expense. That’s our Da Game Show star newscaster, Maisie Ramage.
Right now, Maisie is living with her two adorable children, Kannon and Mylee, as a guest in someone’s house. She works odd-jobs all she can, but her first priority are her kids so that impairs her ability to work normal hours.
You have to see the looks on their faces when they need her. Who could ever say no to them. Both (Kannon, a boy and Mylee, a girl) are extremely well-behaved considering the fact that they have had struggles with a broken home, a school system that isn’t easy to break into, a job market that is not exactly built for single mothers, and a mom who does all she can to earn an honest living for herself and her kids.
Ron Huffman at Pukalani was willing to hire her. But minimum wage isn’t going to put food and clothes on the backs of a family of three. Despite that, she considered it anyway but the hours we such that she’d have to hire a babysitter to bring her child to the bus while she worked! Not practical.
Captain Kirk Nelson, thanks to Eliot Gouveia, also offered Maisie a job: but it is a 40 minute drive each way, and the same deal: she’d have to hire help to get a job!
Now that’s easily done when you making $100K a year or more, but on minimum wage? Come on.
Marie and I are so small, and our cash flow is so bad, we can barely handle our own obligations. Yet we use Maisie all we can to help wherever she can. Take for example this new issue. We have a distributor called Maui Circulation that in any other place on earth would have been driven out of business by a savvy competitor long ago. But because they have a monopoly, all us publishers use them.
So, we have allocated money to Maisie to supplement their work. Are we able to re-bill this? No. Is it taking from our bottom line? Yes. Do we care: sort of, but if we can help her we will.
The slideshow below is of the drops Maisie made last week. She drove there and put the magazines in the resorts just days ago. Our advertisers want proof that we do what we say we do, so Maisie photographs each drop spot after she puts out the books. I don’t think another publisher goes to such lengths.
When Maisie’s not doing 20 jobs, she volunteers to appear on Da Game Show and in this magazine. Why can’t we pay her? Because the golf here in Hawaii, and the people in government who run the budgeting behind our visitor industry, have no desire to jump start anything new or creative. They won’t even consider it. You have to be around for a while, and pay your dues. Even then it’s an uphill battle.
Well, Maisie’s paying her dues. I hope Marie and I can eventually make her struggles pay off. Heaven knows, she deserves it. God Bless Maisie, and Mele Kalikimaka!
