University of Hawai'i University Relations Media & Publications Honolulu, HI 96822	(808) 956-8856 Telephone (808) 956-3441 Facsimile ur@hawaii.edu E-Mail
For Immediate Release:	December 4, 1997
Contact: Cheryl Ernst, (808) 956-5941

UH Hilo/Hawai'i CC Janitor wins President's Excellence Award Magdalena "Maggie" Visitacion has been named the 1997 recipient of the Universtiy of Hawai'i President's Award for Excellence in Building and Grounds Maintenance. She received the award during a ceremony this morning on the UH Mo(a,)noa campus. Finalists for the award, which is given annually to honor an employee in the University system who shows sustained superior performance in a maintenance, landscaping, custodial, shop or trucking position, were Raymond Kaneshiro, from Hamilton Library, and Hatsuko Kaulukou, who takes care of Kuykendall and Krauss Halls, both at UHM, and Leeward CC's Leilani Ing and Francis Hirota. Visitacion is credited with quietly and humbly making a difference on the University of Hawai'i at Hilo/Hawai'i Community College Manono campus. Numerous nominating letters speak of her exemplary work performance as a janitor and her after-hours beautification efforts as a volunteer. "As supervisors, we are constantly awed by Maggie's contributions, over and above her duties, to improve both the tangible appearance and intangible bearing of the UHH Manono campus," write Albert Yoshitsugu and Alan Sugiura, noting her green thumb projects: potted plants and planter boxes gracing entrances to the Hawai'i CC administration building and Gourmet Kitchen facility; a restored hedge where construction had created gaps; lantern 'ilima and kika planted in place of an overgrown hedge outside of the building housing Na Pua No'eau, the Center for Gifted and Talented Native Hawaiian Children; palm, ferns and flowering plants that soften the institutional concrete and tile of building walkways. Hawai'i CC employees also appreciate interior green-thumb touches, including potted plants that Visitacion provides, tends and doctors and fragrant blossoms left on desks and in restrooms. All the plants are products of her own garden-grown at home from seeds she bought or clippings she took from campus plants. Visitacion is environmentally concerned. She fishes aluminum cans from the trash for recycling, educates staff about simple ways to conserve supplies and does research and tests to find the most cost-effective cleaning products and equipment. Equally concerned about safety, she pioneered the college's safety procedures and switch to user-friendly cleaning supplies. Called "sunshine on a rainy day" and "a Filipino Menehune," Visitacion is praised for the encouragement she gives students, the pleasantries she shares with staff and the initiative she shows in her work, such as developing a summer project to pressure clean walkways of mildew, moss and grime. "As a boss, I could use a hundred Mag's, but I would only need a dozen," says Kettleson.

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