Ala Wai canoe event seeks more racers
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
For almost as long as the nonprofit Waikiki Community Center has been providing for the educational and health needs of the area's residents, there has been the Ala Wai Challenge canoe race to raise money for those programs. But the survival of the event is in question this year with only five teams signed up with less than three weeks to go.
• When: Opening ceremony at 8:30 a.m. Jan. 25. Races and games start at 9 a.m. • Where: Ala Wai Canal at Ala Wai Community Park. • To participate: The fee to sponsor a 12-person team (six to paddle, six for makahiki) is $360, which includes lunch, snacks and an event T-shirt for each team member. • Entertainment: Ellsworth Simeona, Lopaka Col—n, Ernie Cruz Jr., Bla Pahinui, Del Beazley and Bobby Modero. • Information: Jeff Apaka, 923-1802. Advertiser library photo • 2002
The 19th annual challenge will be held Jan. 25, sending teams of canoe paddlers sponsored by local businesses and community groups racing down a quarter-mile course on the Ala Wai Canal. The teams also participate in makahiki games.
Ala Wai Challenge
Five teams are signed up with three weeks to go.
Jeff Apaka, spokesman for the center, doesn't want this year to be the last.
"Come on, teams," Apaka said. "I'd like to do 25 years straight before I retire."
Apaka said the center has been holding a string of events to celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2003, causing efforts to recruit teams to be not as focused as in previous years. Letters asking groups to sponsor teams went out Dec. 16.
Last year, 40 teams participated and raised nearly $20,000 to support the center's childcare and early education program, the emergency food pantry, the elderly healthcare service and the English as a second language program.
Apaka would like even more teams this year because the center is not supported by government money but by membership and class fees and fund-raisers.
Every year the event honors an important person in ocean recreation or a strong supporter of the center. Honolulu attorney Michael Tongg is this year's honoree.
Tongg is the past president of the Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association, representing six outrigger canoe associations and more than 10,000 paddlers statewide. He was a member of the original crew of the voyaging canoe Hokule'a.
"It is a special honor for me," Tongg said. All the people they have honored in the past have been well-known contributors in the area of canoeing or surfing and they've had a big impact in where the sport is going.
"More important is the fact that it allows the canoeing community to interact with and come into contract with the sponsors and the people in Waikiki. Paddlers are not just sports people but people that want to contribute back and do more."
Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.
