Retired public school teachers Carl and Irene Takeshita use elementary school techniques to teach adults and children about diabetes and their message seems to have sunk in with the parents at Ala Wai Elementary School.

At an after-school parent presentation, Mindy Scordilis wrote down "potato chips" on a Post-It note when asked by the Takeshitas to list her favorite snack. Like the other parents, Scordilis was startled when Carl Takeshita put nearly every one of the parents' yellow notes into the fatty food section of the old-school-style "food pyramid."

"Knowing my daughter is watching me constantly and learning from my examples, I need to be a better role model," Scordilis said after the Takeshitas' hour-long talk. "I haven't been perhaps the best example because I like the high-fat foods."

Since 1999, the Takeshitas have taken their diabetes presentations around the Islands to school children, retired firefighters, church groups, office workers and even Army engineers. They've spoken to doctors and other healthcare professionals on the Mainland and given presentations on Guam and Saipan.

"I don't get any monetary compensation," said Irene, who does nearly all of the talking on and off the stage.

Their work is sanctioned by the state Department of Education and the Hawai'i chapter of the American Diabetes Association. Their thanks comes in the form of airfare, lodging and the chance to travel as a couple once in a while, although next month they'll use a private grant to train peer education program teachers on the Big Island.

Carl and Irene are both in their 60s — "old already," Irene said. "We'd like to hand it off but I can't get any other people to help me by volunteering. It's just us doing this."

Educating people about diabetes takes on even more meaning during the runup to World Diabetes Day, Nov. 14. This year the theme is diabetes in children and adolescents, which falls right in the Takeshitas' wheelhouse.

"I'm just a classroom teacher," Irene said. "Working with a classroom full of students, that's where I'm comfortable. My message is that diabetes is something that people do have control over with their exercise and their diet. But there has to be a commitment."

Carl and Irene use simple language to talk about serious problems related to diabetes, such as blindness, kidney failure, heart attack, stroke and amputation.

They discuss the dangers of overweight children and risk factors such as bad eating, lack of exercise and the various ethnic groups more prone to diabetes.

And the Takeshitas bring children and adults onto the stage and put little placards around their necks identifying them as "cells" to illustrate how insulin works in a typical body versus how it doesn't among diabetics.

And that's Carl's cue for his only line of the hour-long presentation.

Wearing a sign that says, "insulin," Carl says, "I come from the pancreas."

"If you were waiting for me to talk," Carl said, "that's all I say."

During their careers with the Department of Education, the Takeshitas had almost no understanding about diabetes, even though it runs in Irene's family.

"I knew absolutely nothing about the illness," Irene said. "The more I delved into diabetes, the more I realized that as a teacher I still have influence over children. If I can be an influence with the children, they in turn can share it with their family."

She started at St. Theresa's School on School Street and then spent the next 28 years with the DOE as an elementary school teacher at Manoa, Momilani, Pearl City Highlands, Wahiawa and Waimalu.

Carl spent 33 years with the DOE as a math teacher and at-risk counselor and ended up at the state office as an educational specialist focusing on programs for at-risk children.

They were both retired when one of Carl's Department of Health contacts asked them about creating a program focused on diabetes awareness among public school children.

And that's when the Takeshitas' diabetes education began.

Carl has always been thin and fit and even ran the Honolulu Marathon. But Irene felt guilted into making healthy changes.

"I was way overweight," she said.

They began eating healthier and Irene started exercising regularly by walking three or four miles per day.

"I hate to exercise," she said. "I'd rather sit down and read a book. When I realized the extent of the illness and the possibility that I was highly at risk because I'm Japanese and it runs in my family, I knew I had to make a change."

Irene lost 34 pounds and is now proud to stand in front of strangers and talk about how they, too, can make lifestyle changes to reduce the risk of getting type 2 diabetes, the most common form.

"I wanted to have credibility," Irene said.

She does, according to Majken Mechling, executive director of the Hawai'i chapter of the American Diabetes Association.

"Irene really wanted to walk the talk," Mechling said. "When it comes to credibility, what Irene brings to the table is she is a teacher and she has command of the classroom that the average person outside of the DOE doesn't have. For many of us, it would take 20 minutes just to get the average child to sit still and pay attention."

The Takeshitas' work is just one part of what the DOE calls its wellness policy.

But the Takeshitas were especially welcomed at Ala Wai Elementary School, which had been emphasizing healthier habits and cut back on things like candy for students' birthdays.

"But this year we have a 'no candy campus,'" said principal Charlotte Unni.

"The Board of Education has a wellness policy and we want to stem the tide of obesity and the diabetes epidemic," Unni said. "We said, 'Let's not go into this gingerly. Let's do it wholeheartedly.'"

The first birthday of the year was celebrated with watermelon.

Then a parent of a fourth-grade student substituted treats with "cute playing cards and the teacher was delighted," Unni said. "It helped with her math lesson and she had her students practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, subtraction."

And this Halloween, students will get stickers, crayons or funny erasers instead of candy that only filled them up with sugar.

"The kids are just flying on Halloween," Unni said. "And they're hard to teach in the classroom."

In their presentation, the Takeshitas emphasize cutting back on high-fat treats like candy and cookies — not trying to starve them out of otherwise healthy eating habits.

It's just one of the many messages they shared at Ala Wai Elementary.

Fewer than half of the parents who said they would attend actually showed up. But those who did, like Laurie Wong, were surprised at how much they learned.

Wong only attended the Takeshitas' presentation because her granddaughter, fifth-grader Makayla Willis, introduced them to the audience.

"I wasn't going to come but I'm glad I did," Wong said. "It was an excellent presentation and I think it would make a difference in people's lives."