Traffic safety group meets today
Traffic safety group meets today
Kona Traffic Safety Committee meets at 5 p.m. today in the Community Hale, Building G of the West Hawaii Community Center on Kealakakehe Parkway.
There is parking in the makai parking lot next Building G.
Ohana Makahiki
Fest slated tonight
The public is invited to a stone soup dinner from 4 to 7 p.m. today during the second Waimea Middle School Ohana Makahiki Fest.
The free event will be held in the open-air Malaai school garden and adjacent soccer field. Attendees are asked to enter the campus via the back gate by Kahilu Theatre and park on the field. A warm jacket and comfortable shoes are suggested.
Hands-on activities include traditional makahiki games of skill and strength led by kumu Keala Kahuanui, making star finders, learning about celestial navigation with Navigator Chadd Paishon, making and sampling “canoe foods” including poi pounding with friends from Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden, learning to husk fresh coconut and prepare breadfruit, weaving cordage from lauhala roots with Pua Lincoln from West Hawaii Community College, creating solar print cards and making palm baskets.
Waimea Middle School teachers and families in 2009 adapted the lesson of the French stone soup legend, finding a way to continue feeding students despite school furloughs. Stone soup became part of the school’s culture, so, when science teachers started planning this year’s Ohana Makahiki Fest, they decided to make stone soup for a new generation of students and families. No reservations is required to attend the fest. For more information, call the school office at 887-6090, ext. 222, or Patti Cook at 937-2833.
Composting workshops planned Friday, Saturday
Interactive and informative two-hour workshops on the basics of composting are scheduled this month. The first half of the workshop focuses on backyard composting techniques while composting with worms is covered in the second half. The workshop materials fee is $10 per adult with no charge for children 12 and younger, A voucher for a free Earth Machine backyard composter, valued at $80, is given for each household completing the workshop. Worm bins and worms are also available for sale at the workshop.
The workshops are scheduled for:
c 3 to 5 p.m. Friday at Montessori Education Center of Hawaii, 55519 Hawi Road in Kohala. This is a child-focused session on worms and building a bin followed by the standard backyard composting systems segment.
c 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at Montessori Education Center of Hawaii, 65-1297 Opelo Road in Waimea.
c 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday at the University of Hawaii Colleged of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources Extension Service conference room, 79-7381 Mamalahoa Highway in Kealakekua.
To register for a compost workshop contact Ann Hassler at Crazy4Compost2@gmail.com or 937-1100. The workshops are sponsored by Recycle Hawaii with funding from the Hawaii County Department of Environmental Management.
Free Thanksgiving concert is Friday
Hawaii County Department of Parks and Recreation and the West Hawaii County Band are offering a free Thanksgiving concert from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday at Hale Halawai in Kailua-Kona. Bring a comfortable chair. Bench seating will also be available. Everyone is welcome to this drug-, tobacco-, alcohol- and litter-free event.
For more information, call Marshall Tohara at 327-3565.
Hawaiian scholars speaking Friday
Three Hawaiian scholars will present an overview of a new website dedicated to Hawaiian land and map research during a Puana Ka Ike lecture from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Friday in the Keauhou Ballroom III at Sheraton Kona Resort and Spa at Keauhou Bay. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Members of the website team Kulani Jeremiah-Wong, Jenny Maonikeala Estrella and Raymond Kaimana Estrella will discuss “Avakonohiki — Ancestral Visions of Aina.” They will share challenges, some useful methods and group dynamics experienced in creating the website avakonohiki.org. They will explain their progress in using the site to increase awareness and revitalization of the cultural practices of subsistence growing, malaai and the responsible use of contemporary techniques. They will also give an overview of the Kamakakuokaaina Grant and how graduate research assistants harvested, transcribed, combined and indexed, land documents and provided them on the website, fully text-searchable for all.
For more information on this presentation, contact Joy Cunefare at 322-5340 or email info@kohalacenter.org.
Pono Project accepting grant applications
The Pono Project LLC has announced round 1 of its environmental conservation grants program. Pono Project makes grants to nonprofit or fiscally sponsored organizations for conservation projects that protect or restore the natural environment, or for projects that educate residents and visitors to a place about the importance of land and water conservation.
Two $500 grants will be awarded by Dec. 9. All submitted applications will be reviewed by a grants committee to determine a pool of top applicants. Then donors from the past quarter will vote on the top two projects in that pool to receive the funds. Applications are short and reporting is through video and photography.
Application packets can be found at ponoproject.org, under Projects and Grants. Deadline for all application materials is 5 p.m. Friday.
For more information, contact Paula McLane at paula@ponoproject.org .
Reef volunteer orientation slated
ReefTeach and Puako Makai Watch are enlisting volunteers at Waialea Bay, Beach 69, and Paniau Beach in Puako and will hold an orientation for volunteers at 6 p.m. Friday at Hokuloa Church, 1600 Puako Beach Drive. Volunteers are needed to help save the reefs by educating visitors, swimmers, snorkelers and divers on how to protect delicate corals.
For more information, contact Cindi Punihaole at 895-1010 or cpunihaole@kohalacenter.org or Puako Makai Watch Ranger Randy Clarke at 345-1345 or rpkclarke@hotmail.com. Businesses and schools may contact Punihaole or Clarke for information on how to Adopt-a-Day for their team at Paniau or Waialea Bay.