CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Rupert Teves, left, and Florence Edralin displayed some of the lei people dropped off yesterday at Ala Wai Community Park. The lei will be used to decorate veterans' graves on Memorial Day weekend.

Community answers
call for Punchbowl
grave lei

50,937 lei are collected after the
city's appeal gets a huge response

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By Mary Vorsino
mvorsino@starbulletin.com

Elaine Sato sat at a table strewn with plumeria blossoms yesterday morning at the Makua Alii Senior Citizens Center.

In minutes she turned the fragrant flowers into a lei destined for a grave at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

"I have my husband buried at Punchbowl," she said as she glided another plumeria through her lei needle and began another garland.

The city's plea earlier this week for lei to decorate graves at the cemetery for Memorial Day was answered with an outpouring of aloha. City spokeswoman Ann Niino said the city gathered 50,937 lei yesterday, more than enough for the 50,000 graves at the cemetery for the Mayor's Memorial Day Ceremony.

Lagging lei donations and an increasing number of grave sites in recent years had raised some concern that not every grave site would be decorated for the ceremony. Nearly 3,000 Boy Scouts will place the lei at Punchbowl grave sites tomorrow.

Donations skyrocketed after the city's plea.

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Many community members dropped off lei yesterday at Ala Wai Community Park for Punchbowl grave sites. Florence Edralin, left, accepted donations from Ruth Morikawa.

Asako Furuya, a retired Kaimuki area resident whose brother-in-law served in World War II, heard about the city's need on the radio and decided to help, she said.

It took more than an hour for Furuya to collect blossoms from her garden's plumeria tree and more than five hours for her to string them into 40 lei. She added them to a stack of more than 100 lei at Ala Wai Community Park destined for the national cemetery.

"I wanted to help the community," Furuya said. "I'm glad I made it."

The members of the Makua Alii Senior Citizens Club, however, did not need the city's plea to spur them to action. For more than a decade, they have been making lei for the annual ceremony.

Club member Edith Fujikawa has a brother-in-law buried at the cemetery but said she makes the lei for all of the veterans buried there. There is also the added benefit of making lei with her group of friends.

"We talk. We laugh. We cuss each other," she said.

Yoshi Yamaguchi has been making lei with the club for more than three years.

"The lei is the circle of love," she said. "We want so much to express our love, you know."

Lorraine Akana, the club's president, said that making lei for the cemetery's graves is their "contribution to the veterans."

Honolulu Botanical Gardens, the city, private citizens and others donated blossoms to the center for the lei, said Steven Santiago, the club's recreation specialist.