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Matt Bailey, Managing Director, Grand Wailea
If you’ve seen Matt Bailey, Managing Director of Grand Wailea, lately, then you probably noticed his new do. He’s walking around with a shaved head, the result of losing a recent wager with the Grand’s staff. Earlier this year he challenged his team to raise more than $32,000 at the Annual Visitor Industry Charity Walk. If successful, he promised to shave his head.
The Annual Visitor Industry Charity Walk just completed its 33rd charity drive, and raised $475,101 for Maui County non profit and community programs. The Grand Wailea team amassed a total of $50,000 through many creative and thoughtful fund-raising methods: dunking booths; karate lessons; the selling of spam musubi, cupcakes and ice cream; spa treatments; activities and pledges. This is the most the Grand Wailea has raised ever and the biggest amount for a single organization in the history of the Visitor Industry Charity Walk. “I think everyone gains weight during this fund-raising time because there is so much good food and it’s all for a great cause,” says Christina Yumul, head of public relations for the Grand. Their team also won first place for best food booth, and best T-shirt design categories.
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“There was no question in my mind that if we hit the goal I’d do it,” says Bailey. “I wanted to do something lasting and dramatic, but I’d already done a dunking booth, and a tattoo of the VICW logo was out of the question. I was amazed by the effort and thrilled with the results.”
In a very public display in the lobby of the Grand Wailea, Bailey donned a black salon cape and went under the buzzer with his staff watching. “In almost 30 years in this business, the majority of them in Hawaii, I don’t know that I have ever been prouder of a team for their community efforts,” he says.
