Palm Beach.-- The Hyatt Regency reported the results of its successful flea market, Friday. “Thank you for contributing to the Hurricane Katrina Relief,” says General Manager Scott Allen. “Donors came from all walks of life here,” he continues,” and as victims of Hurricane Katrina are attempting to recover from the disaster, volunteers here organized a flea market. In total Afls 45,328 was raised and will be donated via the resort to the hardest hit areas of Katrina’s destruction.”
Once the decision was made to organize a flea market the local community banded together to support it. Some of the hotels among them Radisson Aruba Resort & Casino, Aruba Phoenix and Divi emptied their storerooms for obsolete inventories; Beautilities off-loaded fragrances and cosmetics; Nannini showed up with bags; local artist Mo Mohamed sent a beautiful canvas for the auction, Gloria Vega dispatched additional art; Coconut Trading Company and T.H. Palm & Company sold huggable bears; Boolchands, Ezee Brothers & Lucky Store donated electronic gadgets; Digicel offered the latest in phone technology; Setar sent the winners of the Sparkling Tour, a recent star search to perform, as well as some cute phones; Freezone, Aruba Bank, Caribbean Mercantile Bank and Kay’s Fine Jewelers dispensed cash donations; purveyors Romar Trading, De Veer and Sons, Frasa, Consales, Aruba Gas, Playa Trading, Unisales, Casa Haime, Carex, Firgos, Office System, Codemsa and Ling & Sons delivered merchandise for sale and auction; the Marriott was fabulously represented with food stands; KLM offered a round trip airline ticket to Europe; Colombian Emeralds International made a Tag Heur ready.
From air conditioning units, Unicon and Arcadus Architechts, to beer, Heineken, and Balashi, merchants joined with items for sale and donations.
Blue Line & Tropical Bottling AWA supplied water; Andina Ice installed three machines and Thunder and Lighting supplied cables for electricity. Restaurants Tango, Cuba’s Cookin’ and Chez Mathilde participated with food and gift certificates. Then individuals delivered many donations and volunteered including Valero, their time generously. The Raspao man showed up to hand his ice cones over for a donation. The Renaissance Mall banded together to collect items for sale. Book Handel Mariska cleaned out its book shelves.
Panache, Studio Italia & Monalisa brought clothes; Sole to Sole delivered Shoes; local TV personality Tessa Pietersz, Trend Alert, conducted an auction, raising a substantial amount of the money herself. Two visitors picked up two stunning Lladro figurines donated by Gandelman Jewelers, plus gift certificates for restaurants which sold at auction like hotcakes.
The parking lot event was advertised by the local media free of charge, including Magic 95.5 FM, Ruben Garcia, TeleAruba, Canal 90, radio personality Ivo Yanes, and more who supporting flood victim in Louisiana, Alabama d Mississippi wholeheartedly.
General Manager Hans Timpner, Brickell Bay Beach Club contributed Afls 1135,- a portion of his resort proceeds, collected at the door, for Happy Hour.
Overall, the success of the event is a tribute to the Hyatt Regency employees Florence Stadwijk, Steve Lacle, his wife Odalis, General manager Scott Allen, Geraldyne Coutinho and many more who devoted hours last week to the organization.
