Island Girl Power has received $15,000 worth of in-kind donations in honor of a late business owner.
Maricor Gerstenlauer, the owner of Zee-One Toys & Candy, wanted to do something special before her February 3rd birthday and to honor her late husband, Bernt Otto Gerstenlauer, who co-owned the business with her.
She decided to donate vending machines and accessories totaling $15,000 in value to the non-profit organization, Island Girl Power.
“Their mission is to decrease things like teen pregnancy, suicide, substance, and sexual abuse and that program has been there for 20 years in operations and since I came here to Guam in 1979,” Maricor said.
She added: “Over the years, I wanted to give tribute to my late husband who had started this business. He is originally from Germany and he immigrated to North Carolina and as an immigrant myself, we wanted to give back. I’m just sharing my blessings with the place where I was given the opportunity to be good, to be successful.”
Island Girl Power Director Juanita Blaz says upon finding out about the donation by the end of January, she was very surprised but also very grateful.
“We found out about it at the end of January and it was a surprise. The donation of the vending machines with toys and gums, and candies, has a lot of promise for us because we actually have plans to choose maybe one or two locations to put the machines in. We’re looking for key locations, hopefully, somewhere nearby, somewhere close to our headquarters, and easy to manage. But in the future we actually plan to make more local branding on what is dispensed,” Blaz said.
She added that some of the things they plan to put in the machines are everything from friendship bracelets made at Island Girl Power, little figurines, clay, shells, and seed packets.
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