The Realtor Association of Maui held its 48th Annual Installation Luncheon back on Sept. 2 at the King Kamehameha Golf Club.

At the event, Marilyn Griffin was elected the 2017 president of RAM.

Mauinow’s Jennifer Bormet spoke with the newly elected president at RAM’s biggest fundraiser of the year.

“It’s the biggest fundraiser (of the year) for our installation and new officers and directors,” Griffin said, “and for the money that goes to our presidential scholarship fund for graduating seniors that we here designate and give scholarships to.”

This years theme was Realtors with Heart, when asked what that meant to Griffin she said that she was an emergency room nurse for 38 years, adding, “When I was trying to think about what I do to give back, or possibly do, the theme ‘staying alive, staying alive’ kept popping into my head,” she said.

She noted that the song was the beat for CPR training, “I started thinking, the gift of life, I can help train CPR and give back some of that expertise that through the years I developed,” Griffin said.

The theme inspired her to give back to the community by starting a CPR training program for sophomore high school students with the help of Christopher Gilbert, a Maui ambulance paramedic and station team leader in Lahaina.

She mentioned that CPR is not a requirement for high school graduation in the state of Hawai’i but wanted to raise funds, donate AED kits to the high schools and have the medical community teach CPR to the students.

“Each year in perpetuity, the realtors could be called on to help with the setup and break down and checking the kids in, that was my passion to try and raise funds,” she said.

Griffin originally hoped to raise funds for four AED kits, at the event she raised enough for nine AED kits for the nine public high schools in Maui County.

“I’m so proud of our generous community here of realtors and affiliates that at the end of this day, I’m told we have nine kits,” she said.