Six Kailua Scouts learn upholstering, painting and tiling to brighten up a home for single, pregnant women

By Anna Weaver | Hawaii Catholic Herald

Until recently, the residents of the Mary Jane Home in Kailua, which provides a safe place for women who find themselves unexpectedly pregnant and with nowhere to go, had their individual counseling sessions in the program’s office, the backyard or in their bedrooms. There was no one designated room they could go for privacy or a quiet space to relax.

But that changed when Girl Scout Troop 735 converted a storage room at the home into a “Zen Room” as part of their Gold Project, the equivalent of the Boy Scout’s Eagle Project. The Girl Scouts also redecorated the home’s six resident rooms and collected personal items for the women.

The high-schoolers decided to help the Mary Jane Home in part because all six girls — Stephanie DeMello, Gabriela Espino, Carolyn Fujimoto, Kathy Manuzak, Kiley Nakamura and Ali Olsen — remembered donating baby items to the newborn infants at the home when they were students at St. Anthony School, Kailua.

But, as Fujimoto, 16, said, “We never really did anything for the mothers before.”

Nakamura, 15, had an aunt that stayed at the Mary Jane Home at its former location at St. Anthony Retreat Center in Kalihi. “We could relate as women,” said the Sacred Hearts Academy tenth grader. “If we were ever in that same situation, we’d want the help.”

Even before the work at the Mary Jane Home, the girls painted storybook murals on the walls of the St. Anthony School library as part of a pre-project Girl Scout Gold Leadership Award.

They then approached the Mary Jane staff to see what they could do at the residence. The staff had long wanted to convert the home’s storage room into a counseling space and the rooms for the six women residents needed touch-ups as well. The Scouts decided their goal was to make the home more comfortable and relaxing.

Mary Jane Home program coordinator, Pam Ito, and program assistant, Rebecca Cuba, worked with the Scouts throughout the project and were pleasantly surprised at the young women’s capabilities. “The girls really had a vision in their minds,” Ito said.

To make their vision happen, the Scouts had to fundraise to cover project costs, holding a garage sale and a donations drive for toiletries and gifts for the women. They wrote and called businesses to get either donated or discounted furniture, paint, accessories, bedding and other items.

The actual renovation work was done over two weekends in February. Each girl was in charge of a bedroom, stenciling floral borders on the walls, getting new bedding and towels, and sewing rocking chair cushions.

In the Zen Room, the Scouts painted the walls and added new window treatments, a ceiling fan, furniture, a small water feature, and plant and “zen” accessories.

DeMello’s father Scott showed them how to retile the floor and Fujimoto’s mother and Troop 735’s leader, Jennifer Fujimoto, who is an interior designer, showed them how to upholster cushions.

In doing the project, the girls found out they had unexpected talents. Espino, a 16-year-old junior at Kalaheo High School, said, “Before this, I would never have tried painting. Now if someone asked, I’d say, ‘Sure.’”

Manuzak, 15, and a tenth grader at Punahou School, in her written final report to the Girl Scout Council of Hawaii, said, “I’ve learned that there are things in this world that I would never think I’d do at this age, like tiling, and that I could do it.”

Olsen, 15, said, “I think we were shocked at how good it turned out.” The Iolani School tenth grader added that her family has jokingly told her she should do some retiling in their home now that she’s an expert.

St. Anthony’s pastor, Father Dennis Koshko, blessed the Zen Room on Feb. 23. The response from the Mary Jane Home staff and residents was extremely positive.

“It’s something that’s going to last us for a long time,” Ito said. “I would not want to change it.”

The Scouts also felt like they had done something that would help many women residents and their babies that come to the Mary Jane Home in the upcoming years. Fujimoto, an eleventh grader at Maryknoll High School, said, “It’s not just going to be for now.”

Seventeen-year-old Kalaheo senior DeMello added, “It was good to help the [infants] because the kids are the future and we want them to have every opportunity they need.”

From the connection to the Mary Jane Home as elementary students to the surprising number match between the six Scouts and the six Mary Jane residents, troop leader Jenny Fujimoto said, “To me it was like the Lord put this project in their hands.”