Sparse floats indicate
dwindling isle traditionThe Kamehameha parade is
facing a shortage of funding
The King Kamehameha Celebration Floral Parade, a grand and colorful tradition for 86 years, is wilting like a pikake blossom left in the sun.
There will still be the pageantry of the pau riders, the marching bands, beauty queens riding in convertibles and elected officials waving to the crowd when the parade rolls through downtown and Waikiki on Saturday.
But the number of elaborate and fragrant floats -- the highlight of the parade -- have dwindled since the state cut funding to the Kamehameha Celebration Commission in 1996.
Until last week, there was only going to be one float -- to carry the royal court -- in the parade. But then Hawaiian Airlines, despite its financial problems, said it would build a float.
That would make two floats in a parade that once had nearly two dozen.
"That's so sad and ridiculous," said longtime parade participant Kina'u Boyd Kamali'i.
Kamali'i, a member of the Prince Kuhio Hawaiian Civic Club, said the Hawaiian civic clubs can't afford to build the floats anymore.
"I guess we all have to ride the trolley now," she said.
Candace Lee, chairwoman for the celebration commission, said another factor is younger members don't want to put in the hours necessary to construct the elaborate floats.
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
B.J. Allen, left, and Candace Lee show pictures of past King Kamehameha Celebration parades. Lee is a volunteer coordinator and Allen serves as a clerk typist.
"It's a huge loss but understandable because it is expensive (to build a float)," said Lee, also a third-generation participant of the celebration.
In the glory days of the parade, each of the 22 Hawaiian civic clubs gathered their families together to build a float. Now there are only 13 active organizations, with nine on Oahu, said Lee.
The state funds enabled the celebration commission to provide a stipend to the civic clubs for the cost of the floats, said Lee.
"The original concept of the floats was to have the numerous Hawaiian organizations build them as a community effort," said Lee.
To build a float, "It costs $2,500 just for materials and flowers, not including any labor costs," said Lee. "We just can't give a stipend to those who want to build. They have to take all the financial responsibility."
The Ahahui Kaahumanu, a women's Hawaiian civic club known for their regal black holokus and yellow feather lei, hasn't built a float since 1999, said Mary Lani Akui, a representative for the club. "It's sad when it comes down to just one float, but it's so expensive and time consuming."
The floats, built on 40-foot truck trailers, require lots of help to build the massive structures decorated with thousands of real flowers, gathered from all corners of the state.
The Prince Kuhio Hawaiian Civic Club needs at least 50 volunteers to build the "standard, masculine" float that carries the court, said Richard Jackson, coordinator for the club, and he knows it takes even more to build the bigger floats.
Even Kamehameha Schools, which is named after King Kamehameha, is not building a float this year.
Nuulani Atkins, who designs the award-winning floats, is needed on other projects, the school said.
"Nu'u is working with one of our new traveling resource programs Ike Pono, and time just doesn't allow him to work on a float," said Steve Reelitz, parade coordinator for the school.
Kamehameha Schools will still be represented in the parade by their marching band and decorated vehicles.
The King Kamehameha Day holiday on June 11 honors Hawaii's first monarch, the warrior who united the islands. It was established in 1871 by King Kamehameha V. The parade began in 1916, making it the nation's second-oldest floral parade, after the Rose Bowl parade, Lee said.
The state used to provide $150,000 a year for the Kamehameha Day Celebration, which includes the parade and the traditional draping of the Kamehameha statue with leis.
But in 1996, the Legislature cut funding in half and cut out all state funding in 1997.
This year's celebration stays afloat with a $20,000 donation from Grueninger Tours, a longtime tour company in Indiana, and $40,000 from the Hawaii Tourism Authority, a grant that must be renewed every year.
When Othmar Grueninger and his wife Libby of Grueninger Tours learned the parade was out of money in 1997 and could be canceled, they gave $25,000 for five years to keep the parade alive. Last year, the annual donation was quietly renewed for another five years. Othmar said, "I didn't want to make a big fuss, and I figured they needed it.
"Having native people and traditions in Hawaii, like an 87-year-old parade, you just can't let that disappear," Othmar said in a telephone interview from Indiana.
Othmar is worried that anything that diminishes the beauty of the parade, like fewer floats, will make people think the parade and celebration isn't important anymore. "And it's only good when the public participates," he said.
The tour company is sending over 350 musicians from four bands to march in next year's parade.
The King Kamehameha Celebration Commission doesn't even have a full-time, paid staff after Keahi Allen retired in March 2002. The commission works out of a tiny office on North School Street, filled with pictures from past parades and towers of filing cabinets.
B.J. Allen, a part-time clerk-typist, whose pay comes from donations, works with chairwoman Lee, who took vacation from her full-time job with a major airline to volunteer to coordinate all the festivities.
"No matter what, our main purpose is have a celebration for King Kamehameha," said Lee. "But if we have no funding, there just won't be a celebration next year."
"It's a part of my culture," said Allen. "If it goes, then all the work from years previous will be gone too. It will be another tradition lost -- something else gone."
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King Kamehameha
>> Friday : 4 p.m. The King Kamehameha statue at Aliiolani Hale will be decorated with a 26-foot plumeria lei. Following that, the Royal Hawaiian Band will play. The Ahahui Kaahumanu Society and other volunteers will begin sewing leis at 8 a.m. at the statue.
Celebration festivities on Oahu>> Saturday : 9:30 a.m. 87th Annual King Kamehameha Celebration Floral Parade. Pau riders, floats, marching bands, including the Atwater Community Band from California, and decorated vehicles will participate. Francis Lum, retiring state protocol officer, will be the grand marshal. Parade begins at King and Richards streets and ends at Kapiolani Park.
>> Saturday : 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Folklife Festival at Kapiolani Park will feature Hawaiian martial arts weapons, native Hawaiian crafts and demonstrations, taiko drumming, Brazilian martial arts and entertainment by Keawe Lopes and Kapena.
>> June 20 and 21: 30th Annual King Kamehameha Hula and Chant Competition at the Blaisdell Center. Twenty halau from Oahu, Maui, the West Coast and Japan will compete in the kahiko and auana divisions. There is also a chant competition.
