'Iao students pose for peace heart
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| The "peace" de resistance of the Maui event was this formation for an aerial view.
John Korpi photo |
By Christie Wilson
Neighbor Island Editor
WAILUKU, Maui — Nine hundred students from 'Iao Intermediate School amassed at Wells Park yesterday to form the shape of a huge heart to culminate activities surrounding the Season for Peace and Non-Violence, a movement begun by the families of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
Christie Wilson • The Honolulu Advertiser
The students, most dressed in red, carried signs that said "United We Stand" and waved at a helicopter as it hovered overhead to photograph the formation.
'Iao Intermediate students boogied to the reggae beat of "United We Stand" yesterday after posing for the heart photo at left
The event had been planned for earlier in the year but was postponed on several occasions because of rain. As it turned out, yesterday's gathering coincided with the anniversary of the April 4, 1968, assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tenn.
Hawaiian songwriter and singer Lei'ohu Ryder, a social studies teacher at '?ao School, and reggae singer Marty Dread led the students in peace songs. Sandy Shiner was bestowed with a Peace Hero Award for her work in coordinating the entire 64-day Season for Peace and Non-Violence.
The event also helped kick off the Peace Parkway Project to beautify Ka'ahumanu Avenue, the main road through Kahului and Wailuku. Plans are under way to plant hardy, low-maintenance trees and flowering shrubs along the length of the road, which is undergoing lengthy construction work. The planting, scheduled for Aug. 17, will be a community effort in coordination with state and county agencies.
There also are plans to wrap white lights along the existing trees on Ka'ahumanu and light them Sept. 11 and during the holiday season, said Virgie Cantorna, one of the coordinators.
She said individuals and groups are needed to "adopt" all or part of the median strips, and donations are needed to buy plants, irrigation and lights.
For more information, contact Cantorna at (808) 244-7883 or vcantorna@aol.com; or contact Shiner at (808) 283-0936 or shiner@tiki.net.
