WAKINIKONA CLUB NEWS
MARCH MEETING HAS INTERESTING AGENDA
If you need a good reason to come to a WHC potluck/meeting, March has it. New club president, Anne Dahlin, and her board have included the following onto the agenda:
· Discussion and vote on new club logo.
· Proposed amendments to the constitution
· Proposal to purchase a digital projector
· Instruction and playing the hana fuda card game
The club have used the logo at the upper right of this newsletter since the late 60’s. We don’t have the original art, nor do we have it in a digital color, and we don’t have a record if it was ever formally recognized as the official club logo. With the intent to update our visibility in the community, the board is suggesting it might be time to change our logo. Further, the board is suggesting building upon what has been used by our hui wa’a since 2004, and is commonly recognized in our Hawaiian community as “Wakinikona.” The hui wa’a logo is on page 4, and the two proposals for our club are shown below. During our discussion, your suggestions to tweak either design would be welcomed, e.g., coloring, lettering fonts, lettering size, etc. Once approved, the logo will become our brand.
For fun, members are asked to bring their deck of Hana Fuda cards and share them with the club. This Japanese card game was once a “local” must have game, played by families throughout Hawai’i. With the electronic age, we’ve lost this feeling of playing cards together as everyone is off during their own thing—listening to their iPods, checking “apps” on their iPhone, playing video games, surfing the net, etc. It’s time to stop, and play Hana Fuda.
HOLOHOLO NEWS
If you still want to keep up with the holoholo news that Uncle Dan Kaopuiki used to write about in the NW Hawai’i Times, go to:
www.//holoholonw.com Dan continues to “roam the NW” and provides human interest stories that have been a hit. Check him out!
RADIO SHOW ON AIR TWICE WEEKLY
Our local Seattle radio show, Hawai’i Radio Connection, broadcasts twice weekly, and continues to serve our community with timely news here in the PNW and back home in Hawai’i.
Here is the schedule for each week:
· KXPA-AM 1540 9 to 10 AM
· KBCS-FM 91.3 Noon to 2 PM
Tune in each week, and catch local personalities, including Braddah Gomes, Auntie Moody, Manono, Cousin Gail, Sistah Kulina, Uncle Ed, Uncle Danny, Uncle Greg, and others, bring you Hawaiian music, news, information and conversation each Saturday.
Both shows now steam live, at kxpa.com and kbcs.fm.
WA'A NEWS
Many thanks to those who gave their kokua on January 30th in helping our hui host the 2nd OC1/OC2 race of the Winter Series at Lake Union. This was a very successful race with 81 registered watercraft —a huge increase from the 46 in the previous year. This means we had a lot more paddlers to register, control and feed. Mahalo to the following for their help: Bill, Leo and Mike Anderson, Abby Crossen, James Clark, Keka Ichinose, Nicole Juliano, Chessine & Kevin Nugent, Josh Oshiro, Jon Wallace, Aven Whitmore, Amanda, Jason & Sue Zimmermann. For those of you who missed it, you lost your chance to a very tasty elk soup from Leo, and shared in the appreciation from the many paddlers who had a safe and interesting race to the “locks and back.”
We want as many of the hui wa’a as possible to attend our pre-season meeting on Saturday, Feb 20th at 1 PM, at Jon Wallace’s home in Renton. This is a very important meeting as we need to complete registration forms, decide on our fund raiser, and make decisions for practice days, support for youth paddling activities and other scheduling items. Please be prepared to make payment for your fees to include wa’a maintenance, renewal of USAC/K insurance, renewal of WHC annual dues (if you haven’t so already), and fund raiser self-assessment (if we elect to do so). Plan on a full 3-hours of engagement, so be sure to clear your calendar to be available from 1 PM through 4 PM. I will mail out packets to those paddlers who can’t attend because they are out-of-town—I am aware of Vern and Jan in Kona, and Bryan in Mexico.
We had a great day of recreational paddling on Sat, Feb 6. The water was flat, little or no wind, and a balmy mid 50’s temperature by the time we finished. We still have 2 more months of wet and windy weather, so I encourage you to come out and paddle whenever the forecast is favorable, as it was yesterday.
EDITORIAL
We are already into the 2nd month of the new year, and haven’t yet discussed new year’s resolutions. Picking up from themes on the national scene for health care reform, from the Hawai’i State level on the wellness of Native Hawaiian, and our WHC president’s call for paddling or pulling together for a common goal, I recommend a resolution for our ‘ohana to pull together in 2010 for improved health and wellness.
We all know the “To Do List” for a healthy lifestyle:
· Exercise More
· Drink more water, less sugary and alcoholic beverages
· See the doctor annually
· Eat less fat and sugar
· Sleep 8 hours or more
· Add more vegetables to the diet
· Eat whole foods and grains, etc.
So the call to action is “Do it!” and do it as an ‘ohana. It just can’t be one of us in the hale that does it, it has to be all of us. Just the other day, as I was eating a bowl of ice cream (sugary foods) while watching TV with my wife, I got a jab in the ribs for tempting her by eating in her presence. Auwe, what about this ’ohana thing? As for exercise, she now has me helping her with a ball exercise that we do every evening—while watching TV. While helping her, I have to admit that I too am reaping some benefits from this daily exercise—you see, this ‘ohana thing does work.
At dinner, I am no longer fussy that she now serves brown rice every couple of days or so—because it’s better. Thus, as an ‘ohana we can work together by adjusting our own behaviors to promote better health. As we move away from the fatty foods and drink more water, we should see our expenses drop from the grocery bills, and in time, this will result in less pills and medication.
As we pull together, the ‘ohana benefits.
