Mother of the Year
honored for opening
her heart

'Always Room for One More'

By Mary Adamski
Star-Bulletin

As a professional dancer and entertainment industry executive for more than 30 years, Cha Thompson is accustomed to having her face in the spotlight.

Saturday she will honored for her other fulltime career, an accolade that "shocked and stunned" her. Thompson, 53, has been named Hawaii Mother of the Year and will be honored at a luncheon sponsored by American Mothers Inc.

She and her husband, Jack, have raised 12 children, four of their own and eight others "who came along and needed our help and our love."

The Thompsons will celebrate their 34th wedding anniversary this year as well as the 30th anniversary of Tihati Productions. The company, which they started as a hula dancer and Samoan fire knife dancer taking the stage with a few friends, has continuously presented Polynesian music and dance on island and mainland stages and now employs 900 people.

The dining room table at their Portlock home is the stage for the nightly Thompson family revue. "We all talk at once, telling about the hurts or the highs." On the wall is a sampler that reads "Always Room for One More" and that has been the theme of the house.

Some of the chairs were filled by children of relatives and friends from Jack's roots in Samoa and Tokelau, who were sent here for an education. Others were from families with problems or "just because they had no place to go." There are currently five children, ages 10 to 20, in the household. All but two of their grown children live in Hawaii and now there are three grandsons in the family circle.

Thompson recently visited Tahiti, summoned by a grown-up hanai son to give a Hawaiian name to his first child. The father "was 7 when he was given to me by a friend."

One of their own sons died in a 1993 accident at the family home when he was a high school senior, a tragedy that still dims the mother's mood. A book on the history of Samoan fire knife dancing, which she started three years ago in her struggle to deal with the sadness, will be published in May.

"I'm an encourager," she says. "I'm not a Pollyanna. That's why I was so shocked when they (the judges) called me back."

Thompson was nominated by Patricia Lei Anderson Murray, the 1998 Hawaii Mother of the Year.

Murray said it was Thompson's generosity in opening her heart to others' children that led her to nominate her longtime friend. "As she was growing up, they made do with so little," said Murray. "When she was fortunate enough to raise her family and there was room at the table and in the home, she just welcomed them in."

Murray said that when she was competing in the national American Mothers pageant last year, "I thought Cha should be here because of her life and the way she has such a spirit of giving. We're always sharing mother stories, we've laughed and cried over so many things in our lives."

The 1999 Mother of the Year insists on sharing the top billing. First of all with Jack, "a lovable bear," who is the softie in the team.

"When he sends them to the store, he gives them $20 and forgets it. Not me, my kids better bring me the change." The kids were never given an allowance but "I believe in giving them lots of praise.

"I want them to have the Kalihi sentiment, not the Portlock sentiment," she said, and the kids are all familiar with her reminders of her impoverished roots. Her mother, Mokihana Kamohalii, "raised her eight children on welfare in Kalihi Valley tenement housing."

The other person who must share the honors, she said, is the family's "Puna deah." Her auntie, Alene Eleneke-Pa, helped raise her children and now, the grandchildren. "I attribute much of my grounding to her; compassion and humor are her strength."

"There are two things my kids learn by the time they leave home. They know the value of an education and that God is a necessity in their lives."

Part of the required presentation to the judges was discussion of her religious beliefs. The Thompsons are active members of Island Family Christian Church.

Mother of the Year
luncheon Saturday

The Hawaii Association of American Mothers Inc. will formally present Hawaii Mother of the Year Charlene Mae Kuupuaala Thompson at a Saturday luncheon at the Pearl City Country Club.

Tickets at $20 each may be reserved by calling association president Ellen Oba at 293-1506 or mailing a check made out to American Mothers to Oba at 55-456 Moana St., Laie 96762.

Lisa Jeanne Wagner will be presented as 1999 representative of mothers of young children, and Karen Matsunaga and Amy Endo, as honor mothers.

The American Mother of the Year will be chosen from representatives of the 50 states and the District of Columbia at the national American Mothers Inc. convention at the Hilton Hawaiian Village April 27 to May 2.