The Rotary Club of Hilo’s May 1, 2026 meeting was called to order at 12:10 p.m. by President Newton Chu with, “It was a dark and stormy night…” I believe you know the rest.
The Pledge of Allegiance was led by our hardworking Sergeant at Arms, Mark Thomas. Lava flow: Connie Ichinose, reporter/Treena Breyfogle, photographer.
Greeters: Grace Manipol-Larson, Kathy Baca, andKari Hoffman
Greeter Kathy introduced our guests: Mary Espejo, guest of Bob Hanley Judy Texeira, guest of Nancy Cabral Guy Nicholson, guest of Kelley Stillman
Greeters:Grace, Kathy, and Kari
Charyse Emmons, guest of Nancy Cabral
Kelton Chang, guest of Brewfest committee
Happy Dollars
Lorraine Shin – Happy that it’s Lei Day today. For Lorrainetoday is significant because it brings back memories of her roots. Her grandma used to be a lei seller in Waikiki. Lorrainewasn’t born the savvy businesswoman/entrepreneur that she is today. She grew up selling leis on the streets of Waikiki where commerce and good customer service was instilled in her from a young age. Lorrainealso announced that Papa Johns Pizza (at her UFC building) is now open. Their age 50 senior discount of 40% off is an ongoing special. 50 years old??? We can go together as a club and moat of us will qualify!
Chay Johnson – $15 happy and wanting to help with the Yukio Okutsu Veteran’s home. Please consider donating items that they can use at their weekly bingo. The residents use their winnings to shop for items at their inhouse store.
Brian Riley – Happy to finally complete his transition to his new home on the Big Island. Brian had to transfer into another Rotary club to make him feel complete. He has been involved with Rotary since 1982 as an exchange student. He says that Rotary literally guided his life to where and who he is today.
Nancy Cabral –$500 to the Food Fight, Salvation Army. She is off to Micronesia, on a global grant project. The group will be bringing $150K worth of medical supplies. A lot of hard work, collaboration, and support from many clubs in D5000. To add to Nancy’s happiness, her new cowboy or girl grandchild will be arriving in October.
Steve Handy, or asPres. Newton calls him, “Mr. Footlong” – Happy to celebrate his 28 years of
wedded bliss to his soul mate, Shari.
Mitch Roth – Happy because this is the first Rotary meeting that wife, Noriko and he are
attending together with Noriko as a Rotarian. (Noriko was inducted at our last meeting)
Mandi Fong – $20 to the Food Fight – Happy National Foreign Service Day! Mandi was a long
time USAID employee and traveled the world, serving the underprivileged.
Shirley Woods – $20 to PolioPlus – “Shout out to my Nevada peeps!”
Gail Takaki - $50in honor of the Science Program, that Rotary has supported over the years.
Kathy Baca – $25TRF. Kathy just returned from mainland and is ecstatic to announce the
arrival of her new grandson!
Other Announcements
Food Fight for Hunger/Carnival, RC of Hilo Bay. Hilo Bay President Tim Hansen challenged our club and the RC of South Hilo to a Food Fight! We can “buy” fun (toy) food: LOBSTER - $50, CRAB - $25, FISH - $10, FRUITS - $5, VEGGIES - $2 as a donation and/or bring actual canned goods and packaged food to the Food Fight Carnival on Saturday, May 16, St Joseph School cafeteria, 1-3 p.m. There will be carnival style games and lots of fun. Beneficiaries: The Food Basket, the Salvation Army, and Hope Services (you can designate the beneficiary when you make your monetary donation). See Beverly Heikesfor more info.
Don’t forget our regular ongoing projects:
Go Cook Um – every Thursday, 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Hawaii Island Home for Recovery. All are invited to help cook and serve lunch for residents. See Grace Manipol-Larson.
Pet Therapy – every third Tuesday of each month. Next one is scheduled for June 16. Hawaii Island Adult Care, 1:00 – 1:30 p.m. If you have a furry friend/family member (we don’t mean your spouse, but you can bring him/her too, if you want), bring them to share some time with the participants there. The kupuna love the visit and cherish the time spent with Rotarians and friends. See Connie Ichinose.
Reading in Kindergarten (RIK) – Once a month, Rotarians go to most of the kindergartens in East HI and read to their assigned class. This rewarding service project takes no more than an hour of time each month and the love and joy shown by the kindergarteners pays this back 100 times over! See Shirley Woods.
Paul Harris Recognition
Chay Johnson, one of our newest members and a Rotarian transfer from RC of Las Vegas Summerlin was honored for achieving her Paul Harris Fellow status, presented by President Newton Chu. Congratulations, Chay!
EREY (Every Rotarian Every Year)
President Newton announced that we are close to becoming an EREY club. Clubs that have 100% of their members give a minimum of $25 to the Rotary Foundation (TRF) are recognized for this achievement. It’s more difficult for a large club like ours to get 100% participation, but it’s a goal for a noble cause.
New Member
Induction
New Member Induction by DG Nancy Cabral: Brian Riley, sponsored by Kelley Stillman Chay Johnson, sponsored by Connie Ichinose Greg Baker, sponsored by Connie Ichinose
WELCOME NEW RC OF HILO ROTARIANS!!!!!
SPEAKER: BREWFEST
July 11, 2026
This is the 13th year that our club has hosted this event, founded by Bob Hanley. Current committee chair is the awesome Anita Tatum.
We need volunteers! It’s a 3-day event – 1. set up, 2. the day of the event, 3. clean up the next day. We rely on you Rotarians and your families.
The event starts at 1:00 for VIP’s. VIP tickets include access to a special air-conditioned lounge with drinks and special pupus.
2:00 p.m. doors open for general membership. The event ends at 5:00. Although volunteers aren’t allowed to drink during the event or partake in any of the food samplings, there is an afterparty for all volunteers where beer and pizzas are served. And the party continues!
Brewfest History:
Two guys walk into a bar in 2012. Those two Rotarians were PE Alan Kusunoki and Bob Hanley. The club had been putting on an Embalmers Ball every year as a fundraiser. The club couldn’t find anyone to step up to chair this event and Alan, being the President Elect, was worried that the club would have no fundraiser. Luckily, Bob, an avid connoisseur of all things BEER and a lover of anything celebrating BEER had an idea. Bob, in all his great BEER wisdom and BEER experience knew that Hilo could support a Brewfest. He got started by talking with Ed Olsen to secure the venue (the beautiful Wainaku Exec. Center) and Piggy Kaleohano to run sound and stage and bring in the live music. When Ola Brew purchased the Wainaku Center, the event was moved to the Hilo Yacht Club.
Where does the money go?
40% of the proceeds go to the RC of Hilo Foundation. This money helps run many of our club projects throughout the year.
Beneficiaries:
HI Island Family Residency, a program from the Hilo Hospital foundation that trains new doctors and encourage them to stay local.
The Friends of the Children’s Justice Center. Our club was instrumental in its creation.
There is a different third beneficiary every two years. Those beneficiaries have been the Boys and Girls Club of Hilo, Adaptive Paddlers, Aloha Ilio, and this year Hawaii Island Home for Recovery has been added.
How much money are we talking about? Marcia Prose shared some staggering info. In 2013 the club netted $20K. Last year, we netted $72K! That kind of money can do a lot of good in our community. Surprisingly, much of the money doesn’t come from ticket sales. In 2013, 871 people attended. Last year, 1060 attended.
The impressive escalation of our net profit is mainly due to an increase in sponsorships.
Sponsorships:
Currently we are about $20K behind in sponsorships. Sponsorship chair Jay Jarrett proposed that we find 10-15 sponsors at $500 each and we could still hit our goal. Immediately, Grace Manipol-Larson and Anita Tatum generously stepped up with $500 each.
President Newton also added $1000. If you would like to help and become a sponsor, please see Jay or any Brewfest committee members.
A HUGE MAHALO TO THE HARDWORKING BREWFEST COMMITTEE MEMBERS FOR 2025-2026: Anita Tatum, Chair, Kelton Chang, Mary Espejo, Linda Griffin, Bob Hanley, James Hanley, Andrew Hreha, Kari Hoffman, Jay Jarrett, Beckie Marshall, Steve Pavao, Marcia Prose, Jen Tanouye.
Meeting Adjournment
The 4 Way Test was led by Eliza Gonzalez.
Meeting was adjourned at 1:16 p.m.
