Håfaloha, everyone! 🏝️ With the passing of the months, we love highlighting our incredible staff as Employees of the Month, recognizing them for their great work ethic and rewarding them for a job well done. (The employees vote amongst each other and choose a staff member they want to highlight.)

But recently, we employees decided that we were going to do something different, and unexpected: We wanted an Employee of the YEAR. And the person we voted for is:

Tara Kaae, the owner and general manager of Håfaloha! There are a lot of reasons why we voted for our boss, the owner herself, which we’ll get into in a sec. But first, we just have to say…

…We know Tara. We know she doesn’t want or enjoy this type of attention. We had to argue with her to even be able to spotlight her like this! 😀 But after some persuasion, we got our way, and now you all get to read about how great she is! (To be clear, this post was *NOT* 🚫 written by Tara, but she did have to reluctantly ✅ approve of it, which was quite a difficult task for her.)

But enough about this process — now let’s shift the focus to Tara herself!

We love Tara for her incredible positivity. Her good vibe is contagious and rubs off on everyone around her. She’s just like that. Every day. We know that’s pretty general, so here are some specifics about what that looks like.

Tara is a loving person. She loves us like 👶 we’re her kids. It’s in her nature to be loving. And kind. She’s so thoughtful and considerate of others, which is apparent in the way she treats not just us her employees, but also in the way she treats all of our customers — to her, they always come first. She’s also generous to others, always giving things away. Tara is also generous with free things — she’s generous with her famous warm smiles and tight hugs 🤗, and she’s also generous to give her hands to those who need help, even when she’s busy.

When challenges arise, Tara doesn’t shy away. Instead, through grit and determination, she overcomes. 💪 She is a great role model for us in this and in many, many other ways (including her traits we already mentioned).

Normally, when an Employee of the Month is chosen, that winner is rewarded with $150 worth of gift cards from the business. 💰 But Tara is not bestowing gift cards upon herself. Instead, as a prize for being so amazing, we are rewarding Tara with the great embarrassment that comes with having your headshot spammed across social media for all Guam to see. Enjoy!! 😬

Tara, seriously though — thank you so much for everything. We love you SO much, and we LOVE having you as a boss!! ❤️