ATLAS INSURANCE AGENCY  VOLUME 12, ISSUE 6

4th of July/BPTW Luncheon!

JUNE 2016

1132 Bishop Street  Suite 1600  Honolulu, HI 96813  808‐533‐3222 

Inside this issue: 4th of July/BPTW  luncheons                 

1‐4     

Honoka‘a Parade 

5 

  Next Steps Keiki  Birthday 

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Toastmasters 

7 

 

   

 

Straight From the  Heart  Welcome &   Congrats!  New Business— Agents 

8 

  9— 11  11 

Submit your articles, pictures  or suggestions to:  Kristen Ribilla  [email protected] 

one Atlas.

Na Leo O’ Atlas

In celebration of winning Hawaii Business Magazine’s 2016’s Best Places to Work (BPTW) for the 8th year in a row, we had a luncheon in our building in conjunction with our Office Activities Committee’s (OAC) 4th of July event. Staff and Agents got to enjoy a buffet from Tanioka’s Catering (the ever so popular fish patties made an appearance!) and staff/agents also participated in our Interactive Bingo as we got to know each other a little more. Each person had to find someone who...played in high school band, loves to eat sushi, has been to Vegas more then 10 times, etc. The winners were all from accounting! First winner for single bingo was Anna Gima, double bingo was Chong & Delia, and then the blackout winner was Rosalie Gines! She had to then recite a verse of the Star Spangled Banner in front of everyone. Thanks for being a good sport, Rosalie! With a fireworks screen display in the background and music, we did our best to give the picnic atmosphere as if you were at the beach or park, cooking out. With that said, thank you to Myles & Atlas, staff and agents received a 24-can easy access cooler that was perfect to use for the 4th of July Holiday! The OAC had a fun time organizing the event and we hope you enjoyed! Turn the page for more photos!

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4th of July/BPTW Luncheon!, cont.

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4th of July/BPTW Luncheon!, cont.

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Hilo office celebrates 4th of July/BPTW! By Nathlie Nakagawa Thank you Atlas, Myles and the OAC for the delicious bento from Kawamoto Store!

Kona office celebrates 4th of July/BPTW! By Lina Weinstock Thank you Atlas, Myles and the OAC for the ono food from Umeke’s!

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Honokaa Western Parade! By Ellen Case Honokaa Atlas offices of Maurice Miranda & Rick Sakata entered the Honokaa Western Week Parade on 5/27/16! The unit came in third place and our float came in second place. Photos of the float appeared on the Hawaii Tribune Herald and in the Hamakua Times newspaper. The parade announcement about the units included: Atlas Insurance Agency is the largest independent agency in the State of HI. With over 70 years of combined insurance experience, please come & visit the Honokaa Atlas offices of Rick Sakata or Maurice Miranda for all our your insurance needs. We all had a great time!

One side of the float (Kathy AhChoy, her son, & Sasha Souza from our office)

Atlas Float with Banner

Other side of float w/Sasha Souza from our office

Mayor candidate, Harry Kim, posing with our float prior to the beginning of the parade

Our pooper scooper unit, an outhouse with Keala Ahuna’s son, Kalai’i Ahuna sitting on the toilet. This was the most challenging as the structure was made of painted cardboard & it rain all day & right up until the parade began

Attached is a photo my daughter, Loren Case, that was part of our mounted unit

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Next Steps Shelter—Keiki Birthday! Each month since July 2006, a monthly Birthday Party has been thrown for the children living in the Next Step Project, a homeless shelter in Kakaako and Atlas Insurance Agency was a sponsor for the June Keiki Birthdays! Keiki Birthday provides traditional birthday parties for children living in the Next Step Shelter in the State of Hawaii. Parents and children celebrate together this special day with cake and ice cream, games, goodie bags and a special hand picked gift for each birthday child. Thank you to those that came to volunteer and support this community event, a lot of you were so natural with the kids! It was a great reminder to count our blessings and appreciate the little things we have.

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Grow With Toastmasters By Elaine Gascon Our fellow Toastmasters are growing personally and professionally by developing their communication and leadership skills, and our Atlas Olelo Hui Toastmasters Ohana is growing as well! This past meeting we filled up the boardroom, welcoming 8 new members from our sister company under Island Holdings, Hawaiian Properties. Not to mention, we had an additional 8 new members this past year, myself included. Soon, we will need a much bigger room! If we weren’t pleased enough by our total member growth, we received even better news during this meeting – Our Atlas Toastmasters Club earned the Select Distinguised Club Designation for the 2015-2016 term! This is a HUGE accomplishment as it required our club to accomplish 7 out of the 10 Club Growth and Educational Goals. This is truly impressive! Great job fellow Toastmasters and Executive Officers for earning this award. 2015 – 2016 Club Officers President–Elaine Panlilio VP Public Relations–Aleksandr Razloga Treasurer – Lily Yamamoto

VP Education–Teri Fabry

VP Membership–Tina Leger Secretary–Ramy Ng Sergeant at Arms–Raphael Ramos

Thank you again to our exiting officers for their service over the last year. We appreciate all of their hard work and dedication! They definitely set a high standard for the upcoming term. What a great way to end our current term and welcome in our new Executive Officers for the 2016-2017 term. 2016 – 2017 Club Officers President–Debra Chong VP Public Relations–Elaine Panlilio Sergeant at Arms–Mike Cravalho

VP Education–Raphael Ramos

VP Membership–Teri Fabry Secretary–Elaine Gascon Treasurer–Sylvia Baptiste

We are looking forward to another fun and productive year. Interested in attending one of our Toastmasters meetings, or maybe even joining? Most will say no right off the bat since it is not required and for some, like myself, public speaking is not something most people enjoy. This brings me to one of my favorite sayings which gave me the extra push to join Toastmasters earlier this year: “A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there” – Unknown.

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We Can Control Our Health! By Sharon Hodson I wanted to share my real life situation with my Atlas family. I have always struggled with high cholesterol, high LDL results and even higher triglycerides. High triglycerides runs in our family and I never thought I could do anything about that except continue to take medication.

2016 HEART Committee Aleksandr Razloga, x-8740 Anna Gima, x-8714 Chenise Blalock, x-8680 Daun Watanabe, x-8714 Kristen Ribilla, x-8791 Vince Miyoi, x-8719 Vivian Haitsuka, x-8653 2016 HEART Committee Advisors

Because I take medication, I do blood testing every year. Last October, my Bonnie Pang, x-8651 Lance Kawano, x-8725 blood test alarmed me because not only was my lipid panel results high, for the Sharon Hodson, x-8657 Steven Pang, x-8619 first time, I had a “fatty liver” with 2 cysts that developed. I was devastated, Vince Miyoi, x-8719 but told myself that I need to take more drastic action toward bettering my Naomi Sutton, WorkLife Hawaii health. So, I cut out French fries completely, and that was painful. I ate natto rolls for breakfast and Subway chopped salad. I ventured out to Chinatown a couple of times a week, and cut out my musubi and rice at night. I got Invisalign a month and a half ago and am drinking a lot of water during the day. On June 11, 2016, I had to do a re-test and here are the results Cholesterol