About Town: October 25, 2020

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West Hawaii Today wants to share your news with our Hawaii Island readers. To submit a press release or announcement, visit https://www.westhawaiitoday.com/submit-news-story. WHT reserves the right to edit and does not guarantee publication.

AARP Caregiver Webinars available

AARP Hawai‘i is offering free weekly Caregiver Wednesday Webinars to provide valuable information and resources for caregivers on Zoom and the AARP Hawai`i Facebook page every Wednesday at 4 p.m., starting November 4th.

The first Caregiver Wednesday session, entitled “Finding the Balance,” features Linda Coble, Hawaii’s first female television news anchor and the widow of beloved television news anchor Kirk Matthews. Coble will share key lessons she learned from her caregiving journey after Matthews was diagnosed with cancer. Attendees will participate in a question and answer discussion facilitated by Michael Cheang, a family resource management professor at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

“Being a caregiver has never been easy and the coronavirus pandemic means many caregivers are having to socially isolate to protect those they care for,” said Keali‘i Lopez, AARP Hawai‘i regional director. “November is National Family Caregivers Month and we’ve planned these webinars so that any caregiver and family member can participate, learn and interact with other caregivers.”

Go to AARP.org/HI or the AARP Hawai`i Facebook page and click on Upcoming Events to register to get a Zoom link or watch the Wednesday 4 p.m. sessions on Facebook Live.

Besides the 4 p.m. webinars, Neighbor Island caregivers can learn about resources available in each county at webinars at 9 a.m. for Kauai caregivers, 10:30 a.m. for Maui Caregivers and 1:30 p.m. for Hawai`i island caregivers on November 18th.

Other Caregiver Wednesday 4 p.m. sessions include:

• Nov. 11: Medicare for Caregivers

HVNP offering Halloween fun

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park invites families to visit the Kīlauea Visitor Center lānai on Halloween weekend, Oct. 31 or Nov. 1, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Rangers will safely provide each keiki a free ecology gift bag, and a bingo card that helps families explore the park Halloween-style.

Park entrance fees apply, but families with fourth graders get in free. Just complete the paper voucher on www.everykidoutdoors.gov, and present it at the entrance station fee booth. The Every Kid Outdoors pass provides free access to fourth grade students and those accompanying them to more than 2,000 federal recreation areas until the end August 2021. Can’t make it Halloween weekend? Fourth graders are eligible for the pass throughout the year.

The free eco gift bags are provided by the Ohi‘a Love Fest and paid for by grants funded through the Rapid Ohia Death Working Group. They include the bingo exploration card and a Rapid Ohia Death (ROD) decontamination kit. ROD is a fungal disease that is killing ohia trees in the park and throughout Hawaii.

Note to teachers and home-schoolers: would you like a park ranger to visit your classroom virtually? Our rangers are ready with distance learning programs. We can tailor the program to your curriculum needs, and do a virtual huakai (field trip) on location from the park. Contact havo_education@nps.gov to set it up.