Community contributed by Siri Anderson
Celebrate AmeriCorps Week with us! AmeriCorps is a national service program that engages Americans of all ages and backgrounds in solving community problems. Please stop by our Kualapu`u Business Center office to hear about our unique Molokai program which offers educational award opportunities and financial literacy, career and job search support.
_6.jpg)
Column by Kathy 'Kapua' Templeton
_6.jpg)
.jpg)
Community Contributed
By Walter Ritte
Up: Eight hundred years ago, traditional Hawaiian fishponds doubled the food capacity of the existing reefs, helping the ahupua`a system to feed hundreds of thousands of Hawaiians in a sustainable fashion.
Down: After Western contact in 1776, the Hawaiians, their culture, and fishponds use declined dramatically. By the 1980s, raising fish in the ponds was almost nonexistent – “highest and best use” was declared, and the ponds became marinas, parks, housing, navel facilities, harbors, bird sanctuaries, hotels and millionaire estates.
Up: In the 1990s Molokai led a state wide effort to protect and restore traditional Hawaiian fishponds. With the strong support of Sen. Dan Inouye and Gov. John Waihe`e, highest and best use was replaced with “traditional use” of these of these cultural treasures. In March of 2011, hundreds of fishpond operators and supporters from all islands came to Molokai to kuka kuka and organize themselves.
Down: A week later in March, the Japan tsunami hit many ponds in Hawaii including ones on the east end of Molokai. Some of the ponds were just recently restored, which required many years of hard work by strong young backs of our younger generation.
Up: Three days later, on March 14, the walls of Keawanui fishpond were being restored after being totally destroyed. Some fifty volunteers have already put in valued restoration hours answering the kahea for kokua. Today the students of Ho`omana Hou School proudly harvested 34 pounds of oysters they placed in plastic baskets 10 months ago. It has been a very long time since aquaculture has been successful in Keawanui fishpond…we hope this small harvest will become a sustained “big ups” for traditional Hawaiian fishponds, and once again help bring food security to Hawaii.
.jpg)
Maui Hotel and Lodging Association News Release
Over 50 Molokai residents gathered for their own Visitor Industry Charity Walk at 7 a.m. last Saturday. The event, sponsored by the Maui Hotel and Lodging Association, was the kick off to the 33rd annual Visitor Industry Charity Walk – a fundraiser that will also take place on Maui, Oahu, Kauai and the Big Island.
The Molokai Charity Walk began at One Ali`i Park and ended at Hotel Molokai, where participants were treated to a festive program emceed by “Princess” Zhan Dudoit with food, fabulous entertainment and great door prizes. The worthy event raised $5,000. All of the funds raised on Molokai will stay on Molokai to benefit the island’s residents.
Ever heard the rumble of a helicopter overhead and wondered what it was doing on Molokai? From tour companies to the military to environmental efforts, Friendly Isle skies are open to a wide variety of helicopter activity. Helicopters are used on Molokai to help fight fires, crime, the spread of invasive species, and other positive efforts. However, some residents of the island’s east end describe the high volume of helicopter activity from tour companies as annoying and even invasive.
[The helicopters cause] echo in the valley,” said Pilipo Solatorio, a resident of Halawa Valley. “It’s like being at the airport. It ruins the peace, tranquility and culture of the place.”
The Tour Scene
The sudden passing of someone dear can be hard to take. Yet it teaches me things as well. When the last breath of my life is released, I want to know with confidence that I’ve done my best to let those around me know and feel how truly special they are and how very much they are loved. It is not a noble thing I seek. I only seek to be the human I was meant to be. Our days are limited. How will we choose to spend our time together? I hope we will choose to spend our time building memories as fond as I have found you to be. Let’s not bicker and quarrel. Instead, let us celebrate each other’s presence and the gift of having met in this life so brief.
On behalf of the Kualapu`u School running team, I would like to thank the following individuals for the time and monetary contributions that they made so that this team could attend the Honolulu 5K for Kids on May 1.
Mike and Nicole Kahale, Matt and Erika Helm, Kiley Adolpho, and Lydia Trinidad – thanks for being there as the support team on race day!
Kiku and Kevin Donnelly, Phillip Kikukawa, Katina Soares, Joyce Haase, Ian Haskins, Ryan Link, and Maria Holmes from Coffees of Hawaii – thanks for helping to put on the on-island 5K “practice” races so that the team could be ready to race against a larger Oahu field.
A big no, no for Molokai…because Molokai is too small for a wind farm. The wind farm is mainly designed to serve Oahu. I see this as a failure with our government when they didn’t envision what it would be like to overbuild massively. On Oahu the buildings are literally climbing up the mountains. And now they are facing an energy crisis. I know we surrendered our coconut trees to beautify Oahu, they also took our golden sand, and now they want to peg those ugly turbines to mar our majestic Molokai from her natural beauty! Generosity should work both ways…in this case Molokai gets a minus.
HSPLS News Release
The Hawaii State Public Library System (HSPLS) has received a grant from Kamehameha Schools for academic support materials – just in time for their Summer Reading program.
The Kamehameha Schools Public Education Support Division awarded HSPLS a $25,000 grant for academic support materials in nine of our libraries, including Molokai Public Library. The funds have been used to purchase library materials for students from preschool to age 20, at targeted branches located in communities with large Native Hawaiian populations.
Book topics include Hawaiian language, biographies, non-fiction, fiction, encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, mythology, folktales, and Pacific Island people and cultures.
.JPG)
With Molokai’s reputation as a strong farming community, one island nonprofit thought the time was ripe to start a community garden, to educate residents on the best gardening practices.
Rosie Davis, executive director of Huli Au Ola Area Health Education Center, received a grant from the Department of Health in November 2010 to begin a health-through-gardening project, called Community Putting Prevention to Work.
“Everybody wants to eat healthy, but it’s so expensive,” Davis said. Her family started their own large garden four years ago and is currently building their second greenhouse.. She said they save around $500 a month on their grocery bill by growing their own vegetables as well as fishing.
The first community garden site, a half-acre in Kalamaula, will be cleaned and the soil tilled this week by volunteers. Davis’ program runs on community volunteers, who reap the benefits at the end of harvest.
“[Molokai] dirt is really healthy, we just have to know how to mix it to make things [grow],” Davis said.
.JPG)
Add your comment