Colin Middleton art courtesy of Coloured Rain

Hi Tiffany:
Our Puna Panthers, ages 10-13, won their 4th game in a row, beating Waiakea at Hilo Bay Front last Sunday. They are now 4-0. Congratulations to the team (since most of these players have never played football before). Let’s support our Pahoa High School Volleyball Team. They are playing their first playoff game this Wed, May 5th, 6pm at Pahoa High School. Go Daggers.
Fred Blas

Aloha Tiff:
Kamehameha School broke our 3 game winning streak today, lost 3-2, but we battled them out & almost won the last game. The team worked hard. We’ll get ‘em next time. We had a packed house at the Pahoa Gym. Thank you fans for supporting our team.
Fred Blas

Image courtesy of St. Edwards University

Come & support our volleyball team — They are playing Kamehameha at Pahoa High School Gym, Sat, Apr 24, 2010, 10 a.m. Go Daggers. See you there.

Fred Blas

Alyse Radjenovic art

Who shows up to a Green and White Day Parade wearing red and white? Puna Councilwoman Emily Naeole-Beason.  When she got out of her vehicle wearing a red and white floral mu’umu’u with a red silk lei wrapped around a black cowboy hat, I just took a deep exhale.  It was just one more thing on my list to illustrate all the politics involved with putting on a parade.

After my exhale, I couldn’t help but be amused. What was she, a Pahoa High School alumna, thinking, when she decided not to wear her school colors? Did she want to stand out amid all the basketball players in their green jerseys? Was she trying to match the Hawaii County Band? After all, their uniforms are red and white gingham. She can’t blame it on not getting the memo.  Her Council Aide Gwen Kupahu wore a green T-shirt and her legislative aide, RJ Hampton, wore a green and white gingham button-down shirt.

What Naeole-Beason didn’t realize when she showed up decked out in red and white was that, prior to her arrival, I had  been having hard time finding a volunteer driver for her.  By the time she arrived, she was shown to a red Chevy pickup that — turning a negative into a positive — matched her dress! Read the rest of this entry »

Pahoa Daggers with 10-month-old Sophia "Fifi" Hunt

The Pahoa Dagger Basketball team who won the state championship were honored Saturday with a Green and White Day parade through Pahoa in classic cars and hot rods, followed by a chicken and rice luncheon with their family, friends, and politicians. (See more photos here, here, and here.)  Among them was Mayor Billy Kenoi, Sen. Russell Kokubun, Reps. Faye Hanohano and Clift Tsuji, Puna Councilwoman Emily Naeole, and Helene Hale.

Hale, who will turn 92 this week, is a retired Big Island politician, who, while serving as a state representative, laid the foundation for the $7 million gym being built in Pahoa.  When Hale learned of the Green and White Day parade honoring the basketball champions, she remarked, “And they did it practicing in that old gym.”

Kokubun and Hanohano gave each one of the players certificates for their achievement and Hunter Bishop, executive assistant to Kenoi, gave the players accolades and provided each one of them with keychains on behalf of the mayor. Naeole-Beason vowed that she would provide the players with certificates, before her colleagues at an upcoming County Council meeting.

Green and White Day Parade was put together by Mainstreet Pahoa Association in collaboration with the County of Hawaii Mayor’s Office.  The event was so successful that school officials and Pahoa merchants vowed to make Green and White Day a tradition.  Mayor Billy Kenoi declared March 7 “Dagger Day” in honor of the basketball champions, so next year’s Green and White Day will coinicide with Dagger Day, Mainstreet Pahoa Association President Madie Greene said. Read the rest of this entry »

Ahupua'a image courtesy of Kamali'i Elementary School

(Media release) — In ancient Hawai‘i, fresh water was recognized as a precious, life-sustaining resource, and each useable source was carefully protected and judiciously managed by the community’s kahu wai for the good of the people and the land.  Kahu wai means “water master, or one in charge of water rights and division.” (Pukui, Elbert, 1986).

Malama O Puna is initiating a scientific/cultural program called Kahu Wai, which will foster environmental literacy among our future decision-makers (K-12) through place-based education in local venues, from mauka to makai.  The goals are to raise awareness in the community about the health and wise management of our local watersheds, while providing students with an opportunity to connect classroom learning with the real world. Read the rest of this entry »

Aloha Pahoa merchants and friends of Pahoa merchants:

This is to inform you that Mainstreet Pahoa Association, in collaboration with the County of Hawaii Mayor’s Office, will be holding a Green and White Day Parade at 2 p.m..*, Saturday, March 20, 2010.  Anybody and everybody who can help with this is encouraged to attend tomorrow night’s annual Mainstreet Pahoa Association meeting at 6 p.m. at the Pahoa Neighborhood Facility (also known as the Pahoa Community Center).

If you cannot attend the meeting, please prepare your Pahoa business with as much decoration for Pahoa pride (i.e., green and white) on or before Saturday, March 20.  Put signage in and on your storefront to let your customers know we are having this parade.

If you know anyone who wants to be in the parade with this short notice, please, please, please, have them get a hold of me at (808) 938-8592.

All parade participants should wear green and white… Everyone in town is encouraged to sport the school colors.

Let’s build on this momentum with the Dagger state championship win.

Congratulations, Pahoa Daggers for giving Puna some positive press!

Mahalo nui loa,

Tiffany

Jeff Hunt Surfboards co-owner

(*edited 3/9)

Make a Smilebox postcard

Among us was a mermaid, a leopard, batwoman, spiderman, Jasmine, Snow White, the alphabet, and a baby octopus. Our team of trick-or-treaters hit old Pahoa Town, the littlest ones by stroller and a wagon.

Before the rain came down we hit every lit business and residence. Gladly, many of the businesses offered us treats — Jeff Hunt Surfboards, L & L Hawaiian Barbecue, Black Rock Cafe, Pahoa Home Video, 7-Eleven, Pahoa Cash-N-Carry, Island Naturals, Book Buyers, Puna Style, Sukothai Restaurant, Pahoa Village Cafe, Boogie Woogie Pizza, the tattoo parlor, LuQuin’s Mexican Restaurant, even the Pahoa Fire Station.

Sadly, one of the only establishments in the historic corridor to reject us was the police substation.  Officer Watkins answered the door, empty-handed.  ”Sorry, we don’t have any candy,” he said. Read the rest of this entry »

Dickenson Nakashima

(Media release) — A Puna man has been charged with unlawful imprisonment for a confrontation with a 16-year-old girl.

A School Resource Officer received a report Tuesday (Oct. 13) from Pāhoa High and Intermediate School officials about an attempted kidnapping of a high school girl while she was walking to a bus stop in the Tiki Gardens subdivision in Pāhoa.

Through his investigation, the officer was able to determine the identity of the suspect and arrested 22-year-old Dickenson Nakashima of Pāhoa at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday. The case was turned over to the Juvenile Aid Section for further investigation.

On Thursday (Oct. 15) Nakashima was charged with unlawful imprisonment in the second degree. His bail was set a $1,000.

This week when I had the occasion to see Helene Hale at the Pahoa High and Intermediate School gymnasium groundbreaking, I asked her what she thought about the Hawaii County Council shenanigans.  The 91-year-old laughed, noted the article in this week’s DaKine about Joyce “Bearded Lady” Folena and Gregory Smith’s Board of Ethics complaint against Emily, and recalled her own experience with the couple as a politician over 20 years ago.  

Helene Hale used to be on Emily’s Kupuna Council, a group of kupuna from different aspects of Emily’s life who advised her on a regular basis.  But after Helene told Emily bluntly that she should not be making any public references to religion, Emily dismissed her from the Council. Had Emily listened to her kupuna rather than dismiss her, Bearded Lady and her partner would not have an ethics complaint against Emily today. 

To her credit, Emily has always been candid about her zealotry and forthcoming about being a “prayer warrior.” She has been nothing short of honest with the public about her religious beliefs. As a reporter for one of the island’s two dailies, I quoted her references to scriptures and “Akua” during the 2006 Hawaii County Council campaign.

Now that Emily is in public office, however, she must concede that she represents people who may not necessarily be devoted to Akua or a specific sect of Christianity that believes Jesus Christ is Lord. As we all know, Hawaii is a multi-ethnic community, in race and in religion. 

In Puna especially, for the cheap land that has attracted all walks of life, there are plenty of experientialists that, among other traditional beliefs, refuse to accept any aspect of Calvinism. Read the rest of this entry »

Pahoa High and Intermediate School students observe the gym groundbreaking today, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009.

Thirty seven years after Gov. John Burns made the promise, Pahoa High and Intermediate School will finally get a new gym.  Primatech Construction has the bid for the reported $8.2 million project set to begin in two to four weeks.  Today, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009, dignitaries, members of the public and Pahoa High School students gathered to commemorate the groundbreaking.  The gymnasium will be named after renowned Hawaii politician Helene Hale, who championed for the gym’s construction during her tenure as state representative. (Helene Hale also served as Hawaii County Board of Supervisor, chief executive (today’s equivalent to mayor) and County Council member.)  Jack Ho vowed that he would be seeking to hire locally for the gym construction project.

RJ Hampton, legislative aide to Puna Councilwoman Emily Naeole, Mayor Billy Kenoi, Sen. Russell Kokubun, Helene Hale, State Rep. Faye Hanohano and Pahoa High & Intermediate School Principal Dean Cevallos

A groundbreaking ceremony for the State of Hawaii’s Helene Hale Gymnasium at Pahoa High and Intermediate School is set for 10:30 a.m., tomorrow, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009.
Helene Hale, 91, who, during her tenure as a Puna state representative initiated legislation to replace the existing school gym, is expected to participate in the ceremony along with local and state officials.