700 Windward residents rally against drug use

By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer

KAHALU'U — To honking horns and shouts of encouragement, nearly 700 people lined Kamehameha Highway yesterday in a grass-roots sign-waving campaign against drug use.

Students from Kahalu'u Elementary School yesterday marched on Waihe'e Road toward Kamehameha Highway in a campaign to protest the drug problems in their community. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

Organizers estimated about 275 participants in Kahalu'u, where the movement originated, and another 400 sign-wavers along the 29-mile stretch to Sunset Beach.

In Hau'ula, Honomu Street resident Kealoha Keama, 51, waved at motorists and said seven of the 35 homes on their dead-end street are drug houses.

"We're taking down licenses and working with the police," Keama said.

In Kahalu'u, traffic slowed even more than usual during the evening rush hour as people called out to one another, flashed the shaka sign and honked their horns in support of the campaign.

The noise was so loud at times that residents could not hear each other talking.

"I'm surprised by the response," said Dennis Welch, 44, who held his sign next to the Mount Zion Church in Punalu'u. "I guess everybody believes we have a problem."

The idea for the campaign arose out of a Kahalu'u anti-drug meeting last month. It quickly spread throughout the Windward Ko'olauloa District, the upper part of the Windward coast.

The organizer of the sign-waving campaign, Pastor Keith Ryder of Light of Promise Ministries in Kahalu'u, estimated that 275 people turned out in Kahalu'u alone. MaryAnn Long, Ko'olauloa Neighborhood Board chairwoman who helped spread the word about the campaign in her district, reported 400 people from Ka'a'awa to Sunset Beach.

Boys Scouts from Troop 591, the Hau'ula Little League team, members from the Greater Mount Zion Holiness Church in Punalu'u and residents of Honomu Street were among the hundreds of Windward residents who stood on the roadside for two hours waving and shouting to passing vehicles and feeling the support of the community as drivers hooked and waved.

Jarrett Pang, a retired postmaster for Ka'a'awa, held up a sign drawn on a Postal Service shipping box that said "Stamp Out Drugs."

Pang blames drug users for the two burglaries of his home in the past three years. He said he is fearful of people high on drugs, citing the fact that some are so aggressive they have shootouts with police.

"Once the thing eats up the brain cells, you don't know what they'll do," Pang said.

Bob Nakata of Kahalu'u, one of the organizers of the town meetings that led to the sign campaign, said he was amazed at the number of people who turned out in Kahalu'u and the positive response from motorists. The community is speaking out, Nakata said.

"People wanted to make a statement," he said. "Their tolerance for drug use is way down. They want it out of their community."

Police said there were no reports of complaints or accidents because of the campaign. Officer August Roback, with Windward District 4 resource unit, said the sign wavers were orderly and everything ran smoothly.

Ryder said people in Kahalu'u were excited to finally be doing something about the drug problems in Kahalu'u. Now the community must move forward in implementing solutions, Ryder said.

A meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at KEY Project in Kahalu'u on Waihe'e Street.

The agenda will include working out the details for solutions that have been suggested including community education and Neighborhood Watch programs where the community becomes the eyes and ears for the police.

"We'll take it one step at a time," Ryder said. "We're looking at the solution as coming from the community itself."

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com. or 234-5266.