Posted on: Sunday, November 28, 2004
HAWAI'I BRIEFS
Soldiers receive phone cards
Advertiser Staff
Verizon Hawai'i has donated 1,000 long-distance phone cards worth $10,000 to soldiers of the 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry.
More than 600 soldiers from the unit are training in Fort Bliss, Texas, and will be sent to Iraq next year.
Nationwide, Verizon has donated more than 200,000 phone cards to soldiers through the United Service Organizations.
The state Department of Transportation is advising Windward motorists of lane closures along Kalaniana'ole Highway between Kapa'a Quarry Road and the Castle Junction Intersection tomorrow through Friday.
The right town-bound lane of the highway, including the right-turn onto Kamehameha Highway, will be closed:
• Tomorrow, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and 6:30 p.m. to midnight. • Tuesday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Motorists will be allowed to make a right turn onto Kamehameha Highway from the intersection.
The closures are necessary to pave the right-turn lane that was cordoned off after a landslide last year. Major work on the project is scheduled to wrap up in mid-December, weather permitting, the DOT said.
Electronic message signs will be set up to offer additional advice. Area motorists should allow for extra travel time or take an alternate route.
The AIDS support organization Life Foundation has received a three-year federal grant to provide HIV care and prevention services to Native Hawaiians and Micronesians on O'ahu. The grant, from the U. S. Office of Minority Health, allots $200,000 per year.
The mission of the Office of Minority Health is to improve and maintain the health of racial and ethnic minorities in the United States. The program will extend to other Pacific islanders, teaching about the risks of HIV, offering anonymous HIV testing and counseling and working to ensure adequate care.
Life Foundation will work with Papa Ola Lokahi, which will provide traditional healing services, and with the Waikiki Health Center, which will offer community-based medical care.
Information: 521-2437.
Esther Kakalia Westmoreland, a master of traditional Hawaiian weaving arts, has been honored as the recipient of the sixth annual Ho'okahiko Award, presented by Duke's Canoe Club Waikiki.
Westmoreland, known as Aunty Esther, 92, is renowned as a practitioner of weaving traditions from various Polynesian cultures, with expertise in creating mats, skirts, hats, fans, baskets, sails and other items from lauhala and other plant fibers.
She learned as a teenager from master weaver Elizabeth Iona and passes on the art through weekly classes at the Kapahulu Senior Center.
In honor of the 63rd anniversary of the Dec. 7 attack on Pearl Harbor, the Hawai'i State Library will host "World War II Memorials: USS Arizona and USS Missouri," at 11 a.m. Saturday in its Hawai'i and Pacific Reading Room.
The free program is sponsored by the library's Language, Literature & History Section, and is suitable for all ages. Conducting the one-hour program will be guest speakers John Newton, a volunteer for the USS Arizona Memorial and Steve Kooiman, education manager for the Battleship Missouri Memorial.
The USS Arizona Memorial signifies the beginning of the United States' involvement in Word War II (Dec. 7, 1941) and the Battleship Missouri Memorial the end of Word War II (Sept. 2, 1945, the day Japan signed surrender papers aboard the ship.)
For more information, call 586-3499.
An expanded schedule will go into effect Wednesday for the Kapa'a and Waimea swimming pools, allowing for greater use for water workouts and recreation.
The Kapa'a pool is closed Mondays, but open from noon to 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, noon to 4:30 p.m. Saturdays, and 1 to 4:30 p.m. Sundays.
The Waimea pool is open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturdays, and 1 to 4:30 p.m. Sundays.
For more information, call (808) 241-4460.
Lois-Ann Yamanaka, author of "Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers," will be the main speaker at the conclusion of Windward Community College's Common Book Program at 7 p.m. Dec. 8 at Paliku Theatre on the school's campus.
Over the past semester the college has hosted discussions centering around the New York Times best seller "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser. Yamanaka will discuss her reaction to the book.
For more information call Brian Richardson at 235-7436 or e-mail him at richards@hawaii.edu. For a schedule of events and list of resources, go to library.wcc.hawaii.edu/CommonBook.
Pearl City Public Library will present a free holiday program at 3 p.m. Dec. 8 featuring a magic show and balloon sculptures by "Bungie the Clown."
The one-hour program will be held in the library's Children's Room. To request a language interpreter, call the library at 453-6566 by Wednesday.
The library is at 1138 Waimano Home Road.
The newly formed community group Hui 'O Makiki will meet at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Makiki Library on Ke'eaumoku Street to discuss projects for the betterment and beautification of the neighborhood.
The group will organize, review its mission statement, and discuss the Makiki community plan, vision team projects and the renovation of the community library.
Makiki Neighborhood Board chairman John Steelquist will update the group on community activities.
For more information, call Norma Keonig at 946-3291.
The O'ahu Arts Center's third annual "Holiday Dinner" will be Dec. 17 at the Kapolei Golf Course, 91-701 Farrington Highway. No-host cocktails will be from 6:30 to 7 p.m., with dinner and entertainment to follow.
The event is open to the public, and tickets are $35 per person.
The reservation deadline is Dec. 10.
For reservation information, call Melissa Graffigna at 387-0534.
Entertainment for the event is being coordinated by Doug Mossman. Performers will include the Tri-School Theater Ensemble from Leilehua, Mililani and Waialua high schools, directed by Jaime Rolfsmeyer.
Also on hand will be keiki 'ukulele artists, classical pianist Matthew Rollins of Leilehua High, the O'ahu Civic Orchestra Woodwind Quintet, and singer Jasmine Idica from the Academy of Performing Artists.
Three people were injured, two critically, early yesterday in a collision on Kamehameha Highway near the Dole Pineapple Pavilion.
The wreck happened at about 6 a.m., police said, when a southbound Ford Escort crossed into the northbound lanes and struck a Dodge Caravan head-on.
A passenger in the Escort, a woman whose age was not available yesterday, was critically injured, police said.
The driver of the Caravan, a 49-year-old man, also was critically injured.
The driver of the Escort, a 19-year-old woman, was in fair condition.
All three were taken by ambulance to The Queen's Medical Center, where the driver of the Escort was being tested for alcohol use.
Police said speed may have been a factor in the wreck.
The passenger in the Escort was not wearing a seat belt, police said.
Highway lanes closing for work
Life Foundation receives grant
Duke's honors master weaver
War memorials event Saturday
Swimming pools expand schedules
Yamanaka will speak Dec. 8
Library to host holiday program
Community group to meet
Arts center plans 'Holiday Dinner'
Two-vehicle crash injures three
