It Takes a Village to Host a Tourist

Beverly Creamer,

3:02 p.m. Top left, Hilton servers load up breadbaskets for this evening’s banquet, the U.S. Marine Corps Air Wing Group Ball, with 540 guests. “This is the calm before the storm,” says Hilton spokeswoman Cynthia Rankin. She says the banquet team usually spends about two hours setting up for such an event, but can get it done in an hour if needed. Middle left, banquet food server Anna Rose helps set tables in the Tapa Tower Conference Center for the banquet. “I only do forks,” she says. “Someone else does knives. It’s assembly line style.” Behind her, on the left, members of the Marine Corps Color Guard, dressed casually in shorts and T-shirts, practice their routine. In two hours, they’ll be back in crisp uniforms for the real thing. Rose will serve four tables this evening, adeptly balancing large trays of food at the start and trays of dirty dishes afterward. She’s been working at the Hilton since the first week she arrived in Hawaii in 1974 from San Jose, California.

3:02 p.m.

Hilton servers load up breadbaskets for this evening’s banquet, the U.S. Marine Corps Air Wing Group Ball, with 540 guests. “This is the calm before the storm,” says Hilton spokeswoman Cynthia Rankin. She says the banquet team usually spends about two hours setting up for such an event, but can get it done in an hour if needed.

Banquet food server Anna Rose helps set tables in the Tapa Tower Conference Center for the banquet. “I only do forks,” she says. “Someone else does knives. It’s assembly line style.” Behind her, on the left, members of the Marine Corps Color Guard, dressed casually in shorts and T-shirts, practice their routine. In two hours, they’ll be back in crisp uniforms for the real thing.

Rose will serve four tables this evening, adeptly balancing large trays of food at the start and trays of dirty dishes afterward. She’s been working at the Hilton since the first week she arrived in Hawaii in 1974 from San Jose, California.

This article appears in the January 2015 issue of Hawaii Business Magazine.
Categories: Community & Economy, Tourism

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