Hula benefit to help Guam recover
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
The aloha and holiday spirits are alive and well in the Islands, and a Kane'ohe kumu hula is hoping to share some with typhoon-ravaged Guam.
• Send monetary donations to: Guam Hula Families Relief Fund, c/o First Hawaiian Bank, Main Branch, 999 Bishop St., Honolulu, HI 96813. • Drop off donations of instruments at the Paradise Cruise office, on the ground floor of the Aloha Tower Marketplace. Or call 384-2696 to arrange pickup. Donations of clothing or household items also will be accepted for shipment to Guam.
Hula teacher Al Makahinu Barcarse is planning a benefit auction of hula and musical instruments when he travels to workshops in Tokyo next month.
How to help
Barcarse, who travels widely to participate in hula festivals and give dance workshops, feels the effects of Typhoon Pongsona as if it had devastated his own family. The community, which had barely recovered from Typhoon Chata'an five months earlier, is suffering intensely during a season traditionally devoted to celebrations.
"I just heard from friends yesterday, and they were excited because they finally have water," Barcarse said. The typhoon struck Dec. 8.
Guam kumu hula Benji Santiago is joining Barcarse in Tokyo Jan. 10 for three days of hula and lei workshops, so the Hawai'i teacher decided it also could become an occasion for a little aloha.
Barcarse has canvassed hula halau, supply stores and instrument makers for donations of Hawaiian musical and hula instruments that could be auctioned in Tokyo as a fund-raiser for Guam.
Santiago and Barcarse also are trying to plan a benefit performance for the final day of the workshop series Jan. 12.
"I go to Guam twice a year, and the people are so super," Barcarse said. "...We've got a good thing going, and we're almost like family."
