Students show support for U.S. troops at war
By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer
HAWAI'I KAI — They are a long way from Baghdad, Iraq, but for a few moments yesterday the students at Kamiloiki Elementary School felt the tug of war.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
Some of their 'ohana were in the Gulf or on their way, so the student council tied yellow ribbons around school trees and the flagpole as Ted Jaderstrom's fourth- and fifth-graders played "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" on their flutophones.
Kamiloiki students Corrie Murashige, 11; Trevin Nishibun, 8; Megan Saepae, 10; and Max Stomber, 11, tie a yellow ribbon around a tree on their elementary-school campus.
School staffer Annie Gino, whose 19-year-old daughter once attended Kamiloiki, started to cry.
Pfc. Amanda Gino is in Kuwait serving with the Wisconsin Army National Guard. She was called to war just as she began her first semester of college. Her mother organized yesterday's ceremony.
"I have my moments," Annie Gino said. "Doing things like this helps me."
She wore a T-shirt emblazoned with a photograph of her daughter. She made one for Gail Tomita, the school health aide whose son, Army Cpl. Joseph Hoffman, 23, is headed for the war.
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"He said to me, 'Mom, it's our turn,' " said Tomita, a mother of four. "I said, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'This is what our grandfathers fought for and I'll be proud to fight for our country.' "
Tomita figures her son, a Kaimuki High School graduate, will be in the thick of it because "Joey" is a communications specialist with U.S. ground forces. For the moment, she is not worried.
"He is a good kid," she said. "He is at his strongest. His mind is strong. He's going to be OK. It's not an option of anything bad happening to him."
Head custodian Gordon Goo's son-in-law, Marine Sgt. Cornelius Scott, 25, is in Kuwait. Events like yesterday's ceremony are good for the students, he said.
"It's good to have them involved somehow," he said. "And it's good to let the guys overseas know they are supported."
Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8012.
