Mariellen Jones is the executive director and co-founder of the Lokahi Giving Project. For more than 2 decades, she has been working tirelessly, around the clock ..Helping to make the holidays brighter for those less fortunate. Thanks to her efforts, and many generous donors, hundreds of hawaii residents have something to look forward to at Christmas.
This year, it is Mariellen who is getting an extra special gift.
Cosmetic dentist, Dr. Wynn Okuda is giving Mariellen a whole new smile.
"This is the biggest gift that anyone could ever give me."
Mariellen has been living with pain for much of her life. According to Dr. Okuda, Mariellen has severe dental problems.
"She has more filling then tooth structure in a lot of her teeth. And underneath all of those big filling, we have a lot of this decay and so it's very close to her in several areas being what we call root canal procedures."
Mariellen says her teeth has also been a"financial" pain. She says dental insurance doesn't cover the work she needs done and she could never afford to do the work on her own.
Well, today is Mariellen's lucky day. Dr. Okuda, who has treated many A-list celebrities in his 23 years of practice, heard about Mariellen's problems through his previous work with Lokahi and wanted to help. He offered to perform a full mouth reconstruction and to complete this giant task in just three visits over the course of six weeks!
"I'm still amazed that there's somebody out there that's so generous that they would be willing to help me out like this."
"Dr. Okuda believes it's important for people and businesses to give back. He says he's honored to help someone who has been so devoted towards helping others."
In the spirit of Lokahi, Trini Kaopuiki, KHON2 News, Hawaii's News Leader.
