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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 3:09 p.m., Sunday, March 8, 2009

Punahou grad is 2009 Lei Queen

Advertiser Staff

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

City Department of Parks & Recreation Director Les Chang with 2009 Lei Queen Lauren Kanoelani Chang.

Photos courtesy of Mona K. Wood

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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

(Left to right) 2008 Lei Queen Paulette Kahalepuna, Ka’iulani de Silva (presenting sponsor HECO and judge), Kalai Sina Kamau’oha (1st princess), 2009 Lei Queen Lauren Kanoelani Chang, Jodie Miyagi (2nd princess), and Kirk Caldwell, Managing Director of the City and County of Honolulu.

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The 2009 Lei Queen forf Honolulu is Lauren Kanoelani Chang, a Punahou graduate.

First Lei Princess is Kalai Sina Kamauoha. Second Princess is Jodie Miyagi, a student of Kumu Hula Kahai Topolinski.

The queen and her court will preside over the daylong festivities at the 82nd Annual Lei Day Celebration on May 1 at the Kapiolani Park Bandstand.

Chang is the daughter of Melvin Kaheana Chang & Sandra Perreira Chang. Her family is of Hawaiian, Chinese, Portuguese and Filipino ancestry. Born in Portland, Ore., Kanoelani graduated from Punahou School in 2001, and then studied at Whitman College in Washington state. She moved back to Hawaii and graduated from the University of Hawaii -Manoa with a bachelor's degree in Hawaiian studies, and now works at the Hawaiian Language Department there.

Chang began dancing hula at the age of 6, under the direction of Kumu Hula Leimomi Maldonado of Ka Hale I o Kahala and now teaches keiki hula classes at their studio in Kahala.