|
A retired Department of Education employee and a farmer's family have been selected for two of only 25 awards given nationally by the National Weather Service for volunteer observers. Isle weather observers
earn national honors2 of the Weather Service's awards
go to Hawaii residentsBy Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.comBen Mayes of Waianae and the Ota family of the Big Island, including Kazuo, his wife Yukie, and his brother Makota, will behonored at a banquet tonight at the Hawaii Convention Center. They were chosen from more than 11,000 eligible observers nationally for the NWS's John Campanius Holm awards for 2001.
Tom Heffner, acting meteorologist in charge of the Honolulu Forecast Office, said data collected by Mayes, the Ota family and other volunteers "helps create and maintain the nation's historical weather records."
"The reports help define the weather patterns that occur in Hawaii and the Pacific and provide scientists with a valuable climate record," he said.
Mayes, who retired in 1992 from the DOE Leeward District superintendent's office, has been taking readings since 1974 from his Waianae home.
"It's like taking medicine -- it becomes a habit to go out every morning and read the gauge," he said.
The Otas have collected data for more than 58 years at their macadamia nut farm in Holualoa. Kazuo Ota began taking observations for the University of Hawaii Agricultural Experiment Station in Kona when he was a teenager. He became an official cooperative observer in 1943, and family members have recorded the weather since on the family farm.
They have raised bananas, papayas, tomatoes, ginger and coffee over the years. "Being a farm family, weather is very important to us," Yukie said. "In the past, we used to worry about strong winds damaging our banana trees in the winter, and now our concern is about rainfall."
Makota remained on the family homestead when Kazuo and Yukie moved to a new house on the property, and he continues to record data.
Ben Mayes said he served in the Marine Corps and the Army. When he was hired by the DOE, he received a federal paycheck because he was working on federal projects.
"So I feel I have a commitment to the federal government," he said. "It has been so good to me over the years. I need to provide some services back to the country."
Assisted at times by his wife, Florence, the community leader said he took over the observer responsibility when the previous one retired and there was no one in Waianae to do it.
The federal awards were to be presented during a ceremony at the Governor's Conference on Volunteerism and Hawaii Disaster Readiness Expo at the Convention Center.