HTFG West Hawaii Chapter to meet
The next meeting of the Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers West Hawaii chapter is slated for this Saturday.
The featured speaker will be Dara Stockton from the USDA Agricultural Research Service, who will hold a fruit fly trap making workshop. Attendees should bring plastic bottles and string to use for traps. COVID-19 protocols will be in place for this first meeting since March 2020.
Discussions will also include the new HTFG Greenhouse, around which the workshop will be held from 10 a.m. to noon.
The 31st annual Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers Conference will be held Oct. 8 and 9 on Maui with the Kona portion on Oct. 14. Registration is at www.htfg.org
Members and guests are encouraged to bring fruit for sharing. Nonmembers are welcome to attend.
Meetings are held at 81-6393 Mamalahoa Highway. Parking is limited, please park on top along the road and walk down.
For more information, contact Brian Lievens, president West Hawaii chapter, at (808) 895-8753 or greenwizard@hawaii.rr.com.
Scholarship program sign up is Saturday
Another chance to sign up for the UCC Hawaii Miss Kona Coffee Scholarship and Little Miss Kona Coffee Scholarship Program will be from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Kona Commons during the shopping center’s monthly Artisan Market.
More than 55 vendors from around the island will offer a variety of carefully curated products to shoppers and a portion of the proceeds from this month’s market will benefit MERCYworldwide, Kona Branch.
Girls and young women interested in participating in the UCC Hawaii Miss Kona Coffee Scholarship Competition and Little Miss Kona Coffee Scholarship Program can visit the pageant’s booth at the market, pick up information, and meet some of the titleholders.
This year’s competition is being held in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival, which will be held Nov. 4 to 7. The pageant is scheduled for Nov. 5.
For more information on the competition, visit www.misskonacoffee.org, email Ally Brown, executive director, at misskonacoffeeorg@gmail.com, or call (808) 796-1340.
AARP offers disaster preparation webinars
Learn how to understand and track hurricanes, how to retrofit your home to survive a hurricane, plan for climate change and worst-case disasters, and how to create a disaster plan for any emergency from a tsunami to wildfires and even a made-for-TV “Sharknado” in a series of webinars this month from AARP Hawaii.
“We’re obviously having a little fun with the title of our four-part webinar series ‘How to Prepare for a ‘Sharknado’ and other disasters,’ but the message is serious and the key to keeping safe is basically the same for most any type of emergency, even a fictional hurricane with sharks,” said Kealii Lopez, AARP Hawaii state director. “The key is preparation and planning for worst-case scenarios like Oahu running out of food for days or weeks. You need to have an emergency kit to help you get through the days after a disaster, a plan to evacuate or shelter in place, and a way to locate and communicate with loved ones if you get separated.”
The series of disaster preparation webinars starts July 21 and continues each Wednesday at 2 p.m. until Aug. 11. The schedule for the webinars is as follows:
• July 21: Understanding Hurricanes &The Factors That Influence Their Path
• July 28: Planning For the Worst – Understanding How Our Islands Are Vulnerable
• Aug. 4: Creating a Disaster Plan for Yourself, Your Loved Ones and Your Pets
• Aug. 11: Retrofitting Your Home to Survive a Hurricane
Register for a Zoom link at https://aarp.cvent.com/sharknado. The webinars are free and you do not have to be an AARP member or of AARP age to attend.
Survey to assess barriers to commercial ag expansion
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), in cooperation with the state Department of Agriculture, will conduct a Commercial Agricultural Expansion Survey this summer.
The survey will assess Hawaii agricultural producers’ interest in expanding their commercial production and identify barriers to expansion from more than 1,100 Hawaii farmers and ranchers. Funding for this project was made possible by an appropriation from the state Legislature in 2020.
“The pandemic has renewed Hawaii’s efforts to increase food self-sufficiency and improve its current level of food security,” said NASS Hawaii State Statistician Shawn Clark. “The Hawaii Department of Agriculture will utilize the results in guiding government policies and developing financial assistance programs to assist commercial producers in expanding agriculture production.”
In the survey, NASS asks participants to answer a variety of questions about their business profile, barriers to expansion, impact of expansion on the agricultural and state economy, and interest in expansion. Survey participants can respond online at www.agcounts.usda.gov or by mail.
NASS will compile, analyze, and publish survey results in late October. For more information on NASS surveys and reports, call the NASS Hawaii Field Office at (808) 522-8080.
Keaau student wins poetry award
Keaau Middle School eighth-grade student Keith Nathalie Cadalzo was recently awarded the Hawaii Island grand prize in the 22nd annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Poetry Awards.
Hawaii First Lady Dawn Ige, state Senate President Kouchi, and Mayor Mitch Roth delivered congratulatory speeches with winners reciting their poems on a video program to be available for viewing on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/peacepoem/hawaii2021. Na Leo Public television is to air the awards ceremony.
Cadalzo’s poem was selected from a field of more than 100 entries. The annual competition, sponsored by the Maui-based International Peace Poem Project, is to honor King, the civil rights leader who promoted nonviolent means to achieve social justice and equality.
“We are delighted to receive work of this caliber from this young Hawaii poet,” said awards coordinator Melinda Gohn of Cadalzo’s “Rippling Dominoes of Peace,” is a contemporary free verse poem with extended metaphor using heroic figures including the late-Mayor William “Billy” Kenoi to lyrically explore human potential searching for liberty and justice.
Cadalzo received a giclee print donated by Maui Artist Joelle and a grand prize certificate from Gov. David Ige.
Four Hawaii Island students participated as Golden Circle winners and received certificates from Ige. Mekhi O. Smith, a ninth-grade student from Honokaa High and Intermediate School was announced as the contest Grand Finalist. Lili Solomon, a teacher from Honokaa High and Intermediate School, was named as the Dr. King Teacher of the Year.
Some 20 students received certificates as finalists from Roth and a limited edition, commemorative poster featuring the double-hulled sailing canoe Hokule’a sailing into New York Harbor.
The project accepts poetry entries from students for the contest during Black History Month in February. To enter in 2022, contact Gohn via email at poem@maui.net .
For more information on the International Peacepoem Project, visit www.peacepoem.org.