Punchbowl sends out call for Memorial Day lei
Advertiser library photo • May 28, 2001
All graves at the National Memorial Cemetery were decorated with lei last year, but there may be a shortage Monday.
By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer
There may not be enough lei to decorate all 34,000 graves at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl this Memorial Day, and there no longer will be extras to send to the 4,000 graves at the State Veterans Cemetery at Kane'ohe, officials said yesterday.
They urged O'ahu residents to drop off lei at several parks, fire stations and the municipal building Friday morning to preserve the tradition of the most spectacular floral display at any national cemetery.
"Individual lei makers are urged to support the community effort by contributing lei measuring 20-24 inches end to end, and tied," city spokeswoman Ann Niino said.
• Lei may be dropped off Friday from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Ala Wai Community Park, Makua Alii and Kane'ohe senior centers, and district parks at Halawa, Wai'anae, Wahiawa, Waiau and Waipahu; and at fire stations in Kalihi, Waipahu, Waialua, Kane'ohe, Kailua and Hawai'i Kai. • Lei also will be received at the municipal building, 650 S. King St., from 8 a.m. to noon Friday. • Elderly or physically challenged owners of flowering trees can call the city at 523-4525 for assistance.
"Donations of lei have dropped in recent years, making it difficult for event organizers to decorate the growing number of gravesites at veterans cemeteries," Niino said.
How to help
She said the decline seems to be caused partly by a reduced number of flowering trees on O'ahu and is made worse by seasonal demand for lei for weddings and graduations.
Gene Castagnetti, director of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, said that when he took the job at Punchbowl in 1990, the cemetery was receiving 72,000 lei on Memorial Day — enough for two lei on every grave.
Last year, there was one for every grave, plus some for the walls of the columbaria where remains are inurned in 5,000 niches.
"We don't know this year if there will be enough, and won't until the city tells us what they have received," Castagnetti said.
There are only a few new graves every year at Punchbowl, which has reached its capacity. But the State Veterans Cemetery at Kane'ohe is burying more than 400 veterans and spouses annually.
Castagnetti was puzzled by the decline in donated flowers for the annual mayor's Memorial Day services at Punchbowl.
"The mayor's office has increased the advertising, the marketing, the promotion of the lei donation drive with prizes and awards and posters," Castagnetti said.
"They've done a remarkable job trying to recapture the enthusiasm and make it contagious among the school kids and seniors who help make the lei," he said.
"But there are so many other distractions for the kids today, and people are spreading themselves thin," he said.
More than half the lei come from Neighbor Islands, city spokeswoman Niino said yesterday.
Even in reduced numbers, the harvest is an astonishing one, with thousands of seniors and school children creating lei from donated blossoms, National Guard and civil defense workers providing trucks and muscle to move big cartons of the lei, Aloha Airlines donating air cargo space to fly them to O'ahu, and Matson contributing refrigerated containers to keep the flowers fresh for Monday ceremonies, she said.
Completed lei are transported to Punchbowl by volunteers and placed on graves there by Boy Scouts, Niino said.
The Mayor's Memorial Service begins at 8:30 a.m. Monday at Punchbowl. Because parking is limited at the cemetery, free parking will be available at the civic center parking lot mauka of the municipal building, and regular fare bus service will operate roundtrip shuttle service to the cemetery from the Alapai/Hotel streets lot every 15 minutes beginning at 7:15 a.m.
Reach Walter Wright at wwright@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8054.
