Busy in October

OCTOBER HAPPENINGS

New Members

Our meetings are all by Zoom... kind of hard to take great photos of new members! Welcome to four new members during October!

PATTI BRAY
Hilo Medical Center Foundation

IZZY HUERTAS
Hawaii Home for Recovery

LARA HUGHES
First Hawaiian Bank

LEANA POHEVITZ
Law Student

“GO COOK ‘EM CREW”

Rotarians and Community Members help cook meals every Thursday for residents at the Hawaii Home for Recovery. October 29 gave everyone an opportunity to have a bit of Halloween fun!

UPDATE ON OUR "100 THINGS"

OCTOBER GOAL: 100 MASKS

RESULT: 1317 MASKS!

Thanks to all who contributed!

NOVEMBER GOAL: 100 TREES PLANTED

You can be a part of the count! If you plant a tree in November, let us know on our website: hilorotary.org

ROTARY MEANS BUSINESS

You may have noticed that all our new members are always paired with either the business they represent or with their areas of service. Check us out!

Alarm & Access Control Technologies ~ Bay House Bed and Breakfast
BJ Penn Enterprises ~ C. Y. Shikuma, MD, Inc. ~ Century 21 Homefinders of Hawaii
Chris Brilhante Realty LLC ~ Church of the Holy Cross UCC
Coldwell Banker Island Properties ~ Converged Telcom ~ County of Hawaii
CU Hawaii FCU ~ Day-Lum Rentals & Management, Inc. ~ Dept. of Human Services
Department of Water Supply ~ Dodo Mortuary, Inc.
Double H Printed Products, LLC ~ First Hawaiian Bank ~ Global Offsite Care Hawaii Electric Light Company ~ Hawaii Fire Department
Hawaii Fresh Products, Inc. ~ Hawaii Island Home for Recovery
Hawaii Printing / Instant Sign Center ~ Hawaiian Telecom
Healing Hands Publishing ~ Hilo Hearing Aid ~ Hilo Medical Center Foundation Hilo Surplus Store ~ Homelani Memorial Park ~ I Kitagawa & Co ~ Images of Hawaii
Iokua Real Estate ~ K&J Tire Center Inc ~ Kama’aina Motors & Kamaaina Nissan
Kilauea Military Camp ~ Lex Brodie's Tire Co ~ Naomi's World Travel Service
Orchid Isle Auto Center ~ Palace Theater ~ Ron Dolan, CPA & Associates, Inc.
Salvation Army ~ Student at CUNY School of Law ~ Subway Sandwiches
Torkildson Katz Hetherington Harris Knorek Chu
University of Hawaii at Hilo ~ Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii (VASH)
Waiakea Uka Bible Church ~ Wong Way Farms
Yamanaka Enterprise ~ YWCA of Hawaii Island

COVID AND ROTARY

Responding to the Covid Pandemic in Our Community

DICTIONARIES FOR THIRD GRADE

Every year, our club provides free dictionaries to over 200 third grade students in our community. Rotarians show up in the classrooms, give out the dictionaries and provide a “walk through” of the contents. But this year, COVID struck and we could not visit students, many of whom are not even back in the classrooms again.

SOLUTION? create a fun video for students to view online!

A “casting call” went out to the club and ten club stars showed up for the filming! A clever video of live action and cartoon images is now available for the students to watch. Good work, everyone!

READING IN KINDERGARTEN

And it was the same problem for us in classroom reading. Plans are now being made for Rotarians to be videotaped reading the books. Several times a year, each student receives a copy of the month’s book that is being read.

KEIKI HEROES

The NexTech STEM program, which is supported in part by our club, is collaborating in the Covid-19 response with needed PPE inventions and production. In addition, an outreach by way of cartoon "Keiki Heroes" has been created to help educate children about staying safe during this Covid pandemic. Good work, STEM team!

ROTARY MASKS

Rotary Masks were sold for $10 with the proceeds going to the Salvation Army food program.

COOKING LUNCHES

Rotary club members and UHH Athletes have been cooking up some delicious meals for the Hilo Hawaii Home for Recovery.

SUPPORTING COMMUNITY FOOD PROGRAMS

Our Rotary club was tasked with spending $6000 in Covid relief in the community.

$2000 went to an emergency needs COVID KOKUA project.

$4000 is going to an innovative farm to table type project.

Local farmers in the BRIDGES program will provide $2000 each worth of locally grown food to the Salvation Army and the Food Basket.

100 THINGS

As we’ve talked about before, this year our Rotary Club is 100 years old! And to celebrate, we plan to gather 100 “THINGS” that are needed in the community. In September, we tried for 100 cans of SPAM and 100 POUNDS of canned foods.

WE DID IT, AND YOU HELPED!

126 cans of SPAM and 197 POUNDS of canned food was collected

and given to the Food Basket!

WHAT IS THE TARGET FOR OCTOBER?

100 MASKS!

Want to donate? Drop off masks at Day Lum at 2 Kam Ave or at Hawaii Printing Corp at 714 Kanoelehua Avenue.

INTERESTED IN JOINING OUR CLUB?
We are meeting by ZOOM these days on every other Friday at noon. Drop us a note at our website: hilorotary.org

RCOH Doings in September

We've been busy... even during Covid!

NEW MEMBER

Kazuo Todd, County Fire Department First Responder

"SOCIAL SQUAD" Helps out Hawaii Rise Foundation's Project

AUGUST 19 at the TEMPLE BAR
It was still possible to meet, have fun and do good for the community. The club’s “Social Squad” met at the Temple Bar and was able to collect over $400 to donate to the HAWAII RISE FOUNDATION’s Hygiene Packs. What a great job this community organization does to help in our East Hawaii community! Below, some of HAWAII RISE’s members pack up supplies for distribution.

OUR CLUB'S "100 THINGS" MONTHLY PROJECTS

100 School Backpacks

Since this is our 100th Anniversary Year as a Chartered Rotary Club, we've set out to "do / accomplish / collect "100 Things" each month. AUGUST's project was 100 Backpacks. Keiki served by The Salvation Army needed backpacks, and our club made assembling 100 of them as our August “100 Things” project. Our “100 Things” is a project for each month — a challenge to collect 100 of something that is needed in our community. SUCCESS! We collected 136 backpacks.

100 CANS OF SPAM FOR SEPTEMBER

Our project for September is 100 cans of SPAM for the Food Basket. Want to help? You can drop off cans at either Day Lum Rentals & Management at 2 KamAvenue or Hawaii Printing Corp at714 Kanoelehua Avenue. And thank you!

OH, AND BTW... CONGRATS TO OUR CLUB MEMBER BUSINESSES WHO WERE RECOGNIZED IN THE HAWAII TRIBUNE-HERALD'S "BEST OF" 2020!

FIRST PLACE!

DODO MORTUARY
Funeral Home

DAY LUM RENTALS
& MANAGEMENT
Property Management

K&J TIRES

Tire Shop

LEX BRODIE'S FAST LUBE
Oil Change

And six more in Second Place:

ORCHID ISLE FORD

FIRST HAWAIIAN BANK

CU HAWAII FEDERAL CREDIT UNION

HAWAII PRINTING CORP

LEX BRODIES TIRES

SUBWAY SANDWICHES

HILO HEARING CENTER

Congratulations, members!

Busy in August

AUGUST IS ROTARY MEMBERSHIP MONTH!

Why Join Rotary?
Professional Networking ~ Service Opportunities ~ International Awareness
Friendship ~ Good Citizenship ~ Youth Development ~ Ethical Environment ~ FUN!
It’s where PEOPLE OF ACTION, neighbors, friends and problem-solvers share ideas, join leaders,

and take action to create lasting change.

    As our club begins celebrating the 100th years of existence (our birthday will be on December 1, 2020) we invite you to join us and more than a million other people world-wide in 35,000+ clubs.
    Want to help locally? Nationally? Worldwide? Rotarians contribute over 16 million volunteer hours every year... and you can be a part of the projects that create lasting solutions!
    And yes, we are still meeting, even in this stressful time of Covid. We meet in person when and where it makes sense, and we offer ZOOM meetings for those who wish to stay home.
Fill out the form on CONTACT US on our website: hilorotary.org

DOINGS IN OUR COMMUNITY

HOW DO YOU DEMO A SCIENCE LAB IN ONE DAY?

You get seven Club Rotarians together and stand back!
Saint Joseph School says “Thank You!” to Jeremiah Leonard, Misti Tyrin, James Tyrin, Malcolm Chun, Wally Wong, Patrick Smith

and Bobby Dugar. (not in order shown)

BACKPACKS!

School will begin soon and many children will need a new backpack. Why New? Because other keiki will have their new backpacks, but if the child is homeless or living in a poverty situation, that child won’t have the same new thing. It’s very hard to feel “normal” when your clothing or “accessories” don’t match the other keiki. For our “100 things each month”, our club is gathering 100 brand new backpacks for distribution to needy children.

AND IN JAPAN....

FLOWERS TO HIROSHIMA

“Yesterday, Vice President Toru Nakano, Director Mitsunori Ueno, Secretay Tetsuro Hiraga, Deputy Secretary Naoto Kawai of the Hiroshima South Rotary Club and I, Yuji Saiki, president, went to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park to offer the anthuriums you had sent us for the Atomic Bomb Victims Memorial. I’m sure that the anthuriums will comfort the spirits of the victims.”

100th Year President - Nancy Cabral

On July 1, Nancy Cabral became the new president of the Rotary Club of Hilo for its 100th year. Nancy joined the club on January 29, 1988 as the first woman member and has served in various capacities since that time. As the owner of Day-Lum Inc. she is active in business and in the community.

Rotary and Covid-19

Spring 2020

New Club Members

Beckie Marshall, VASH Services

Lani Olds, Homelani Memorial Gardens

Shane Shitabata, Nissan

Our Club's Youth Scholarship Awardee: Miya Yanagisawa

Miss Miya Yanagisawa is the Rotary Club of Hilo's selection to receive a $5,000 Hawaii Rotary Youth Foundation Scholarship for the 2020-2021 school year. Miya reports: “I am 18 years old and am a part of the graduating class of 2020 from Waiakea High School. I plan to attend San Diego State University in the fall to pursue a degree in Business Marketing."

WHAT HAS ROTARY BEEN DOING

DURING THIS COVID-19 PANDEMIC?

ROTARY INTERNATIONAL: RI has contributed over $18 million to Pandemic relief and is working the Global TeleMedicine Project which is training and consulting using best practices on treating Covid-19 Virus.

ROTARY IN HAWAII STATE:

1600 Rotarians across the state have been working together and partnering with organizations to find creative solutions to critical needs in response to COVID19. Financial support from the District has helped individual clubs respond to needed Covid related local projects.

AND ALL OUR BUSY EAST HAWAII ROTARY CLUBS:

ROTARY CLUB OF HILO:

RCOH contributed $1000 to the Kupuna of Keaukaha Meals program along with Hilo Bay Club, the Hilo Yacht Club, and Hawaii Rise. The club also contributed to the Tele-medicine project of RI.

ROTARY CLUB OF SOUTH HILO:

The South Hilo club awarded $4,000 each to the Salvation Army, Keiki Care Packs, Boys and Girls Club, Friends of the Children’s Justice Center East Hawaii and Kuikahi Mediation Center.

ROTARY CLUB OF HILO BAY:

Hilo Bay donated $5,000 to the Boys & Girls Club Meal Program, $1375 to The Food Basket plus rebagging over 30,000 lbs of rice, $1,000 to the Friends of the Children's Justice Center of East Hawaii and $2500 to the Kupuna Project.

ROTARY CLUB OF VOLCANO:

This club provided lei and a congratulations card for each graduating Senior from Ka’u High School and helped with the KMC weekend flag raising.

ROTARY CLUB OF PAHOA SUNSET:

Pahoa Sunset Club contributed $500 to Hawaii Food Basket and $200 and a sewing machine to Youth Challenge Academy Hawaii.

Malama Honua
celebrating Our 95th Anniversary

The Hilo Rotary Club Foundation presents a donation to Pwo Navigator and Captain of the Polynesian Voyaging Canoe, Hokule'a, to help fund their educational programs on their Malama Honua worldwide voyage. (Left to right: Bruce Blankenfeld, Donald Demuth of the Hilo Rotary Club Foundation, and Club President, Wally Wong)

Edmund Olson is recognized with The Rotary Club of Hilo's Malama Honua award for his efforts in caring for our aina.

“Malama Honua” (to care for our earth) is the theme that we have chosen to celebrate our club's 95th anniversary. Along with Rotary International's theme -- “Be a Gift to the World” -- we are inspired as we start this new Rotary year.

President Wally Wong has sought out community service projects that will build a more sustainable community. Projects such as building a vegetable garden for residents of a shelter to clearing illegally dumped trash in a vacant cul-de-sac area in Hilo. We hope to be an example to other organizations and the community, that in order to stop and smell the flowers, we have to occasionally bend down to pull the weeds or pick up the trash.

These are just a few of the many projects that the Rotary Club of Hilo has planned as it follows the Polynesian Voyaging canoe, Hokule’a, on its Malama Honua sail around the world. On its worldwide voyage, the Hokule’a will grow and join the global movement towards a more sustainable world.

Two individuals who embody the principles of Malama Honua were honored at our Officer Installation: Bruce Blankenfeld, Pwo navigator and Captain of the Hokule’a for his leadership and efforts to educate our youth and Edmund C. Olson of the Edmund C. Olson Trust II for providing agricultural opportunities and building a sustainable future for Hawaii Island.