Seats are still available for this year's University of Hawai'i at Hilo Distinguished Alumni and Service Awards banquet, scheduled for Feb. 29 at UH Hilo's Campus Center Dining Room. The event begins at 5 p.m. with no-host cocktails and a silent auction to raise scholarship funds.

This year's Distinguished Alumni Awards recipients are: Hilo High School Principal Robert Dircks; Gay Porter, Hilo branch manager of Business Insurance Services and president of the General Insurance Association of Hilo and the Hilo Rotary Club; and Hansen Tsang, owner of Mauna Kea Electric and a pioneer in developing renewable energy technology for the Hawaiian Islands.

Distinguished Service Award recipients include: Dr. Don Hemmes, professor of biology at UH Hilo and president of the Mycological Society of America; John Farias, a former Big Island member of the UH Board of Regents; George Martin, former Hawai'i Division director and international vice president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU); the late Eddie De Mello, a member of ILWU, a labor organizer and respected lobbyist; and Stanley I. Hara, former state senator and chair of senate education committee.

Tickets are $50 per person, and $350 for a table of eight. For more information, call 808-974-7643 or 808-974-7501.