Awards
Advertiser Staff
The Waikiki Aquarium has received a $5,000 grant from the First Hawaiian Foundation. The money will enable it to purchase new leafy seadragons, also known as Phycodurus eques, for exhibit and research.
"This grant will help ensure that the hundreds of thousands of adults and children who visit the Waikiki Aquarium each year are able to learn about and enjoy one of our most popular exhibits," said Bruce Carlson, director of the aquarium.
The leafy seadragons are native to Australia and raised by a government-licensed fish culture expert there. The seadragons will remain under observation by aquarium researchers until they are ready for public display this summer. They will be featured in the biodiversity special exhibit in the aquarium's Diversity and Adaptations Gallery.
Paid for by the business activities of First Hawaiian Bank, the First Hawaiian Foundation has provided support for the Waikiki Aquarium since 2000. First Hawaiian Bank is a principal subsidiary of BancWest Corp., the largest Hawai'i-based company, with total assets of $20 billion.
Administered by the University of Hawai'i, the Waikiki Aquarium is the third-oldest public aquarium in the United States. Home to more than 2,000 animals representing 400 species, the aquarium is committed to building awareness, appreciation and conservation of the aquatic life of Hawai'i and the Pacific. It is a member of the Coastal America Partnership, dedicated to preserving the nation's coastal environments.
• The John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa recently received a $49,732 grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The grant will help support a one-year study by JABSOM's Dr. Claudio Nigg titled "Validating the stages of change for physical activity."
The Johnson Foundation is the nation's largest philanthropic organization devoted to health. It gives grants in four areas: to assure that all Americans have access to basic health care at reasonable cost, to improve care and support for people with chronic health conditions, to promote healthy communities and lifestyles, and to reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse.
• The Atherton Family Foundation of the Hawai'i Community Foundation awarded Ebb & Flow Arts $3,000 recently to continue children's workshops at Kula Elementary School on Maui.
"The teachers and children gain so much by meeting and listening to the different types of instruments of the various artists that have come to visit the school," said Rene Yamafuji, principal of Kula Elementary.
Ebb & Flow Arts plans to stay with certain children throughout their years at the school.
"We began with kindergarten last year, now have those children as first-graders this year, and intend to follow them through the fifth grade," said E&FA executive director Robert Pollock. "We also work with the third grade this year and plan to follow them through the fifth grade."
