A reserve police officer is the Aloha Exchange Club of East Hawaii’s Officer of the Month for October.
A reserve police officer is the Aloha Exchange Club of East Hawaii’s Officer of the Month for October.
Reserve Officer Iris McGuire was honored Thursday for her dedication to duty in the Puna District, particularly during Tropical Storm Iselle.
McGuire served as a police officer from 1998 until she resigned in mid-2004 to dedicate her attention to her other full-time job as athletic director of Keaau High School. At that time, she volunteered to continue serving her community as a reserve officer.
Lt. Reed Mahuna noted that although the minimum requirement to volunteer as a reserve officer is 20 hours per month, McGuire averages more than 50 hours of service monthly, and put in 65 hours this past August.
On the afternoon of Aug. 7, just before Tropical Storm Iselle made landfall, McGuire showed up at the Pahoa station carrying a large box of nonperishable food items and beverages she purchased with her own money to sustain officers tasked with working through the storm. She then changed into her uniform to work the shift.
“Reserve Officer McGuire had not been asked to report for duty, as district supervisors were well aware that she lived in the lower Puna area and was likely to be impacted by the approaching storm,” Mahuna wrote in nomination papers.
As Officer of the Month, McGuire is eligible to be named Officer of the Year.
The East Hawaii Officer of the Month award is a project of the Aloha Exchange Club of East Hawaii.