About Town 1-16

Kaloko-Honokohau park offers programs

Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park announces the following programs and hikes scheduled for January and February:

— Mondays: Kumu Keala Ching and Na Wai Iwi Ola teach beginning hula from 9:30 to 11 a.m.; ukulele lessons with Mana Hasegawa are from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

— Tuesdays: Geology walk with volunteer Mark Solien (no tour on Jan. 17).

— Wednesdays: Ukulele class with Mana Hasegawa, 10:30 a.m. to noon.

—Thursdays: Informal guitar and ukulele with Rance Pinao and Friends, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

— Fridays: Craft demonstrations with Mele and the park rangers.

All programs start at Hale Hookipa, the park’s visitor center. Starting Jan. 29, a ranger-led program will be held at Kaloko Fishpond at 9:30 a.m. Programs will be held every following Saturday and Sunday. Visitors will be able to walk across the largest fishpond wall in the islands to see this recently rebuilt kuapa (wall). Shoes are required. Visitors will not be allowed on the wall if there is high surf.

For more information on any of the events, call 326-9057.

Monthly Cruise Nights return on Saturday

Lanihau Center in Kailua-Kona will launch the first of its monthly Cruise Nights on Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m. in the main parking lot facing Longs Drugs. The free event is open to the public and all owners of classic, antique and American muscle cars, as well as hot rods, Volkswagens, sports cars, trucks and bikes. The featured nonprofit charity for the night will be the Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii, a visitor assistance organization.

Along with nearly 100 diverse vehicles on display at the Cruise Nights, Lanihau Center will also host a different local charity each month. Volunteers from these groups will have information about their programs at the main show tent. Nonprofit groups who would like to be considered for future Cruise Nights can contact Margo Takata at lanihaucenterkona@gmail.com.

This coming Saturday’s show will also feature the Big Island of Hawaii’s SCCA (Sports car Club of America). Members will be in attendance with a display and information about their events. Also on hand will be 2011 SCCA Driver of the Year Michael Oates with his track-prepped ’90 Mazda Miata and many other sports cars.

There is no entry fee but participants and spectators are encouraged to make a donation at the VASH display and get tickets for giveaways that happen every half hour. Prizes are from center merchants and Transmission Technology, who also sponsors the bright white show lights that illuminate the parking lot at each Cruise Night.

At 7:30 p.m., all automotive participants are invited to “light ’em up” and take a slow, escorted cruise around the center parking lots. Open exhausts are permitted and showing off is what the monthly parades are all about.

For more information, contact Paul Maddox at zoom@kona.net.

Applications accepted for Miyashiro Scholarship

The Jack and Otome Miy ashiro Scholarship of $2,000 is available to a high school graduate planning to attend a two-year or four-year post-high school institution of higher learning as an incoming freshman in the fall.

The scholarship is sponsored by the family of Otome and the late Jack Miyashiro and administered by Hui Okinawa. The Miyashiros were longtime members of Hui Okinawa and successful business people in Hilo. They founded Jack’s Tours.

The applicant must be a graduate of an accredited state Department of Education high school. The applicant or his parent or legal guardian must be a current resident of Hawaii County.

Application forms are available through the counselor’s office of public high schools. Forms and more information are also available by calling Nancy Nakaishi at 961-4677, Alben Namihira at 961-3443 or Margaret Torigoe at 895-0994.

The deadline for applications is March 31.

Ensemble performing at Kailua-Kona library

The Sakura Ensemble presents “Oshoogatsu — A New Year’s Concert” from 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Kailua-Kona Public Library. There will also be a Japanese kimono and art display.

The ensemble focuses on international, classical, ethnic and jazz styles, with particular emphasis on French Impressionistic and Japanese traditional repertoire featuring Annu Shionoya on keyboards, Jean Pierre Thoma on flute and saxophone and Motter Snell on harp.

Sponsored by Friends of the Libraries, Kona, the program is offered free to the public. For more information, call 896-3856.

Universe’s metals is topic for program

“Metals in the Universe” will be the next Maunakea Skies topic at 7 p.m. Saturday at Imiloa Astronomy Center. Dr. Daniel Devost from Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope discusses how the measured evolution of the amount of metals can be used as a test for cosmological models and help scientists get a better understanding of the universe.

Astronomers define metals as being all elements other than hydrogen and helium. Metals are found everywhere in the universe and are an essential component for life. Techniques using professional telescopes can be used to determine the amount of metals in the Sun and meteorites. The amount of metals throughout the Milky Way can also be determined using stars, planetary nebulae or other objects. In the far reaches of the universe, abundance determination becomes more difficult but can be done using other galaxies.

Devost is the director of science operations at the CFHT since 2008 and resident astronomer since 2007. He came to CFHT from Cornell where he worked on the Infrared Spectrograph, one of the instruments on the Spitzer space telescope. Devost earned his doctorate in 2004 from the Université Laval in Quebec City, Canada.

After the guest speaker’s featured presentation, Shawn Laatsch, the center’s planetarium manager, will provide observational highlights of the current night sky over Hawaii, pointing out prominent constellations and stars one can see this time of year.

Presented in the center’s 120-seat planetarium, admission is $5 for Imiloa members and $8 for nonmembers. Tickets may be purchased in advance at the center’s front desk or by phone at 969-9704.

The center is located at 600 Imiloa Place in Hilo, off Komohana and Nowelo streets at the University of Hawaii at Hilo Science and Technology Park. For more information, visit imiloahawaii.org, or call 969-9703.

Fisheries council meeting Thursday

The West Hawaii Fisheries Council, a community-based marine advisory organization, meets from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday at the Hawaii Big Game Fishing Club at Honokohau Harbor. Members will discuss and confirm issues discussed at the strategic planning meeting in December and commit to strategic actions to implement each committee program.

The mission of the council is to “manage fishery activities to ensure sustainability, enhance near shore resources, minimize resource depletion and manage conflicts of use.”

Council meetings are open to the public and, for those wanting to join, applications can be picked up at the state Division of Aquatic Resource office at Honokohau Harbor in Kailua-Kona, as well as by contacting Marni Herkes at 987-2171 or marnih@hawaiiantel.net or Glennon Gingo at 960-9348.

Waikoloa library boosters plan benefit

Friends of the Library Waikoloa Region will hold a lunch at 12:30 p.m. Jan. 27 at Romano’s Macaroni Grill at the Queen’s MarketPlace in Waikoloa. Romano’s will donate 20 percent of whatever is spent at the lunch to the organization.

The group is celebrating both its second year and the receipt of its second grant, which is from the Atherton Family Foundation, to publish the book “This We Believe: Waikoloa Region, Hawaii Island.”

For reservations, email VivianMarita@hotmail.com by Thursday, if possible, with a subject line of “Romano’s.”