PEOPLE who attended the Hawai'i Nature Center's annual fund-raiser, "Dragonflies and Damselflies," at a Nuuanu estate, are still raving about the evening. Now they have even more reason to be excited. The National Association of Catering Executives, representing 3,000 members in the U.S. and Canada, named it the "Off-Premise Catered Event of the Year." The event was produced by Mike Rabe and his staff at Creations in Catering, who came up with breathtaking backdrops, intricate soundscapes, rock ponds and waterways to enhance the natural beauty of the estate. That included giant dragonflies hovering overhead, an effect that was echoed at the Olympic Games' opening ceremonies in Atlanta. In addition, foods at the event reflected the ethnicity of the regions created: Japanese ponds, New Zealand wetlands, menehune ponds of Waimea, marshlands of Milan and swamplands of Louisiana. They were created by such guest celebrity chefs as Roy Yamaguchi, Amy Ferguson-Ota and Russell Siu, to name but three. Congrats to all concerned ... SAY what you will, pro or con, about beauty queen contests, and everyone seems to have an opinion on such pageants, but Dell-Fin Poaha comes down four-square in favor of them. To meet her, you'd never believe the striking woman was Miss Hawaii back in 1950, but that's when she won the crown. Holding the title "changed my life," she says, enabling her to leave Hookena Beach, South Kona, and go to college on the mainland, travel the world modeling and giving piano concerts, singing and dancing. Now she's back in paradise and with her husband runs Haku Sales Co., manufacturers representatives for two dozen mainland firms to retailers in Hawaii. Not all beauty queens turn out to be role models, I know, but Dell-Fin would seem to be one, and her goal is "to inspire our children of Hawaii to fight for a more positive attitude in life." And inspire she does ...
HONOLULU has a new bilingual newspaper, but - surprise! - it's not English and Japanese. No, the bimonthly Hawaii Hispanic News now has articles both in English and Spanish ... I always thought former Mid-Pacific Air and Discovery Air exec Franco Mancassola was a sort of spiffy gent, but was still surprised to read him described in Travel Weekly as "Debonair chief executive Franco Mancassola." Then I read on: he's the head of a European airline called Debonair ...
THE latest issue of "Lungs at Work," the national newsletter of the American Lung Association, has a photo of Gov. Ben Cayetano eyeing KSSK's Linda Coble and preparing to work her over. Coble was the high bidder in an ALA benefit auction to win a personal massage from the governor. Also in the photo is professional massage therapist Roy Nakamura who's demonstrating on Coble the technique Cayetano should use in massaging the press. Ben could use such a lesson about now after taking some heat for accepting a freebie to the Olympics from AT&T. By the way, Nakamura is also in Atlanta, massaging some of our Olympic athletes ...
