About Town 1-21

College Goal Sunday scheduled for Jan. 29

College Goal Sunday is scheduled for 1 p.m. Jan. 29 at the Kealakehe High School library. No registration is necessary.

The event offers free assistance to students and their families in completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The FAFSA is the federal application required by most colleges, universities and vocational/technical schools in the nation.

Participants should bring their 2011 IRS tax return (and parents’ return if younger than 24) plus W-2 forms or other 2011 income and benefits information. A tax form does not have to be complete.

College Goal Sunday is designed to help students and their families navigate the student financial aid process.

The event is sponsored in Hawaii by the Pacific Financial Aid Association and the Hawaii Association for College Admission Counseling, with funding from the Lumina Foundation for Education, USA Funds, GEAR UP Hawaii, Hawaii College Access Challenge Grant and the Hawaii Community Foundation.

For more information, visit cgshawaii.org or call the University of Hawaii at Hilo Financial Aid office at 974-7323.

Free HIV testing offered Tuesday

Free 20-minute HIV testing is available from 1 to 3 p.m. Tuesday at the West Hawaii Community Health Center in Kailua-Kona.

For more information, call 331-8177.

Lions collecting eyeglasses, hearing aids

The third annual “Lions in Sight” statewide eyeglass and hearing aid collection will be held from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Jan. 28 at Choice Mart in Captain Cook, KTA stores in Kailua-Kona and Keauhou and Walmart in Kailua-Kona.

Lions clubs worldwide will be performing community service projects as part of the “Lions In Sight” initiative to raise public awareness of the role Lions clubs play in their communities.

As spring cleaning gets under way, Hawaii Lions are asking people to look through dresser drawers and closets for used eyeglasses and hearing aids and donate them to the Lions Recycle For Sight program.

The glasses will be distributed to those in need in developing countries where eye care is often unaffordable and inaccessible. Most recently, 5,000 pairs of eyeglasses were distributed to villagers throughout the mountainous terrain of war-torn Afghanistan by Hawaii Lions Club members. In most developing countries, an eye exam can cost as much as one month’s wages, and a single eye doctor may serve a community of hundreds of thousands of people.

The glasses will be cleaned, categorized by prescription and prepared for distribution by Lions, Leos and other groups. According to the World Health Organization, the eyesight of approximately one-fourth of the world’s population can be improved through the use of a corrective lens.

The public may also place them in specially marked Lions Recycle For Sight collection boxes. Locations are also posted on the website, visit hawaiilions.org and click on “Used Eyeglasses.”

This year, in addition to the eyeglasses, hearing aids will also be collected, cleaned and tested for local distribution.

For more information, call Alice Kudo at 456-7278 or email pback@hawaiiantel.net.

Lyman Museum hosts volcano program

Of the five volcanoes that make up Hawaii Island, Kilauea and Mauna Loa are by far the most active. Mauna Loa last erupted in 1984 and showed signs of reawakening in the 2000s, but has been mostly quiet since 2009. In contrast, Kilauea has erupted almost continuously since 1983 from its east rift zone, and in 2008, a second vent opened at its summit. This past year was an especially vigorous time for Kilauea, with fissure eruptions, lava lakes and crater overflows occurring throughout 2011.

On Monday from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Lyman Museum in Hilo, U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Dr. Michael Poland will share his knowledge on the current state of activity at these two volcanoes and how scientists at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory keeps track of the changing conditions at Hawaiian volcanoes.

Admission to this program is $3 or free for museum members. Seating is limited to 65 individuals. No presale tickets are offered. Admission is on a first-come, first-seated basis. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

This January, the nationally accredited and Smithsonian-Affiliated Lyman Museum will observe the third annual Volcano Awareness Month, and 2012 marks the centennial of the founding of Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.Throughout January and February, the museum will offer public programming on topics relating to volcanoes and volcanology, to complement its special exhibit, “Hawaii Volcanoes: 1880s to Present,” on display now through March 31.

The museum, located at 276 Haili St. in Hilo, is open from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For more information, call 935-5021 or visit lymanmuseum.org.

Lecture focuses on Kaneaka slide, Heeia Bay

Mahealani Pai and Keone Kalawe of the Keauhou-Kahaluu Education Group will discuss the historical significance of Kaneaka slide and Heeia Bay in Keauhou in an upcoming Puana Ka Ike lecture in Kona.

The free presentation is scheduled from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Friday in Ballroom III at the Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort.

Kaneaka is the royal kahua holua (slide) in Keauhou, whose current footprint is being captured through a plane table mapping project with island students. Cultural specialist Pai and lead mapping teacher Kalawe will share their ongoing research about the slide, its construction and sporting aspects, and Heeia, the bay into which Kaneaka’s pathway once touched.

For lecture attendees wishing to have an on-site experience, Pai and Kalawe will lead a field study to Kaneaka and Heeia Bay from 8:30 a.m. to noon Jan. 28. The field study will help participants understand the direct link between Kaneaka and Heeia Bay, as well as the magnitude of the ancient sport of sledding. Space is limited. For reservations, contact Joy Cunefare at 534-8528 or email info@kohalacenter.org by Tuesday.

Since 2005, Pai has served as the cultural specialist of the Kamehameha Schools’ Keauhou-Kahaluu Education Group, which is responsible for the cultural learning and restoration of sites within these two ahupuaa. He is the founder of the cultural education programs Kiai Aina Kualoloa (Guardians of the Long Back of the Land). He is currently completing his associate in applied science degree in the Hawaiian lifestyles hula track and associate in arts degree at Hawaii Community College in Hilo and Kona.

Kalawe resides in Kahuwai, Puna, where his family has lived for more than 20 generations. Since 2007, Kalawe has traveled to Kahaluu, where he serves as the on-site archaeologist and lead teacher in Hui Kaha Pohaku, a project-based education program created by the Keauhou-Kahaluu Education Group. Under Kalawe’s tutelage, students in Hui Kaha Pohaku produce professional quality plane table maps. These maps capture the current footprint of selected sites and are required by state agencies as part of the restoration process. Along with Leinaala Wilcox, Kalawe co-founded Keala o ka Holua, a foundation dedicated to the revitalization of hee holua, or sledding.

For more information on these presentations or to reserve a space in the Saturday field study, contact Cunefare. For lecture schedules and webcasts of previous lectures, visit kohalacenter.org/puanakaike/about.html and www.keauhouresort.com/learn-puanakaike.html.

The Puana Ka Ike lecture series is presented in partnership with Keauhou-Kahaluu Education Group of Kamehameha Schools, The Kohala Center, the Kipuka Native Hawaiian Student Center at the University of Hawaii at Hilo and the hosting resort.

Kona Outdoor Circle seeks plant donations

Kona Outdoor Circle is looking for green contributions to its annual Pua Plantasia plant sale on Feb. 11 in the form of donated plants.

The organization needs healthy propagated cutting, seedlings or divided plants for its donated plant booth at this year’s event.

Suggested items include vegetables, herbs, flowers, orchids, bromeliads, cactus, succulents, ornamental landscape shrubs and trees. Plants should be limited to a three-gallon size pot or smaller. The organization will also consider mature healthy potted house plants, or hanging baskets, if they are not too big to handle easily.

Plants should be brought to the Makaeo Events Pavilion at Old Kona Airport Park from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Feb. 10. Donors must ensure that their plants are free of coqui frogs, fire ants, insect, stinging nettle caterpillars and diseases.

All donations are tax deductible and a receipt for tax records will be provided.

For more information, call 331-2426 or email koc@konaoutdoorcircle.org.