Hawai'i shows its colors at California parade

By Suzanne Roig and Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Staff Writers

A waving sea of reds, blues, aquas, whites and yellows stretched for a city block yesterday as the Hawai'i All State Na Koa Ali'i Band did the Tournament of Roses Parade in island style.

The Hawai'i All State Na Koa Ali'i Band included 400 band members from 45 public and private high schools — so many that their aloha shirts had to be made in five colors to dress everyone. Observers say the effect worked. Armando Arorizo • Special to The Advertiser

"It went great," said Michael Payton, the all-state band director and part-time director of Kahuku High School. "The kids did great. They wanted to go two miles more.

The response was fantastic," Payton said. "The spectators went wild when we did the hula and Tahitian dancers performed in front of the grandstand."

It's been an odyssey for the band members, who came from 45 public and private high schools and had only a few practices together. Each had to pay $1,040 and several never had participated in a marching band.

"It was a little different at first, but I got the hang of it," said Shelly Hokama, 16, from Hawai'i Baptist Academy in Nu'uanu. "I come from a very small school. We don't have a marching band. It's so exciting marching in the band today, all these people watching you."

The group was so large that it appeared on television screens for eight minutes, Payton said. The All-State band marched before about a million people.

Band members awoke at 4 a.m. to arrive on time. A caravan of 13 buses took the band members and chaperons 30 miles from their Radisson Inn in Buena Park, Calif., to the start of the parade. A couple of the buses were slowed by a freeway traffic accident, Payton said, but it cleared quickly and the buses met up with the rest of the band in time for a warmup session.

The Rose Parade requires bands with a minimum of 150 members. It was John Riggle, band director for Kamehameha Schools, who convinced the Rose Parade music committee it should take a chance on the All-State Hawai'i band. Few Hawai'i schools have qualified on their own.

"We'd thought we'd try, and it was a huge success," Payton said. "The response has been outstanding.

Riggle, managing director of the All State Band, had his doubts about signing up at least one representative from every high school in the state. Once the students started showing an interest, other problems plagued the group, including getting everyone together for practice and raising enough money for expenses.

"I was scared stiff that it wouldn't pull off," Riggle said.

With the help of numerous band directors and parent organizers, Riggle took 650 people to the parade, including the entire Kahuku High School Band.

The group took five flights to reach the Mainland, beginning on Christmas Day. The last members arrived in Los Angeles on Friday, and they were practicing not long after their plane hit the runway, said Kaimi Haiola, former band booster president for Kahuku High School.

They marched and played for more than eight hours that day, Haiola said.

"Mike Payton (band director) is a perfectionist. He was working the kids to make sure they do a really good job to make all of us proud," she said.

Members dressed in long-sleeved aloha shirts with Ni'ihau shell-lei print in five colors, she said. No one was sure how that would look, because they weren't able to find enough cloth to make everyone a shirt of the same color.

The shortfall proved to be a blessing, Haiola said, because the group was as vibrant as a rainbow.

Band members also wore short hula skirts and plumeria headbands. The Tahitian and hula dancers also were a big hit, she said.

Payton said the best part of the weeklong adventure to California was seeing the students bonding, not just sticking to students from their own schools. They're forging new friendships, he said.

"You cannot believe how many hours the director and the kids have put in," said Hilary Rillamis, whose daughter Ashely plays clarinet in the band. "We are so proud of them. It's amazing what they've accomplished in such a short period of time."

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com or 395-8831.