Nine volunteers with the Great Aloha Run — including entertainers from Hawai'i — are in Iraq to bring some aloha to Schofield Barracks soldiers.

The nearly two-week trip combines lu'au, hula and lei with the occasional need for body armor and Kevlar helmets.

Carole Kai, the co-found- er of the annual Great Aloha Run, said the group brought 3,000 shell lei, Hawai'i gift items, and 2,800 CDs with songs by Na Hoku Hanohano Award-winner Nohelani Cypriano, who is among those on the trip.

Entertainer Sonya Mendez already has taken a couple of Black Hawk helicopter rides in the country.

"I'm excited simply because I appreciate our military and I appreciate the fact that the troops up there have staged their own Great Aloha Run to have a connection to our run," Mendez said before she left.

She was hoping she would run into some local soldiers.

"As a local person born and raised in the Islands, local people are real special, and it would be really nice to be able to meet up with Island-born soldiers and just be able to sit down and talk story," she said.

She was also wondering what Iraq would be like.

"I wonder when we're within the safety of the base, if it's going to be noisy with gunfire," Mendez said.

Mendez is blogging about the group's experience for The Advertiser at www.alohafromiraq.honadvblogs.com.

The group, which left Hawai'i last Friday, already has been to Baghdad and is visiting Mosul and Tikrit, both north of the Iraqi capital. Great Aloha Run paid for the group to fly to Kuwait, and military air transport is used from there, said Kai, who did not go on the trip.

About 4,500 Schofield Barracks-based soldiers with the 3rd Brigade and 25th Infantry Division headquarters have been deployed in northern Iraq since October and November; for them, it's a yearlong deployment.

Kai said the 25th Infantry Division has always been involved with the 25-year-old Great Aloha Run, and division commander Maj. Gen. Robert Caslen Jr. invited the group to visit.

Also on the trip are businessmen Randy Hiraki and Jay Ray; Donna Fouts, who is involved with United Cerebral Palsy; and Lori Kuriyama, who works at the East-West Center, Kai said.

Rounding out the group are Radasha Ho'ohuli, a former Miss Hawai'i USA; Jasmine Ornellas, a Miss Kaua'i 2006; and Krista Guiteras-Duncan, the dance captain of Cypriano's dancers.

Kai said some female soldiers started their own hula halau, but they have to dance in combat or physical fitness uniforms. Princess Kaiulani Fashions donated specially made hula outfits for the soldiers, Kai said.

Dr. Lawrence K.W. Tseu, a local dentist and philanthropist, financed the CDs that will be given away, Kai said.

She also said Linda Fernandez of E.K. Fernandez Shows donated Hawai'i gift items for the soldiers.