Hawai'i briefs

Advertiser Staff

Hawaiian Forest celebration slated

Seagull Schools' Early Education Center will team up with the the Hawai'i Nature Center and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to celebrate the Year of the Hawaiian Forest on Saturday at the nature center in Makiki Valley.

Activities will include a stream cleanup and special educational presentations, as well as the planting of native seedlings that Early Education Center preschoolers have grown inside their classrooms.

The free event will run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and is limited to 50 families or a total of 125 people. Participants are encouraged to bring drinking water and wear comfortable walking shoes, hats, sunscreen and mosquito repellent. Call Andrea Park at 533-0004.

Kamehameha gets new vice president

Kamehameha Schools has named Raynard C. Soon as vice president for community relations and communications.

Soon is the first to hold the new position and will report to the acting chief executive officer, Colleen Wong.

Soon was head of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands from 1999 until January.

He also is a founder of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement and served for seven years on the Queen Lili'uokalani Children's Center Advisory Council.

He will begin work at Kamehameha Schools Friday.