HOME & GARDEN
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Mercedes and Lucio Rabago prepared some of the orchids from their home for the 53rd Kunia Orchid Show. They are longtime members of the Kunia Orchid Society.
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Orchids make last stand
Kunia Orchid Society marks its 53rd year with a final show at the Del Monte gym
Talk to Mercedes Rabago about the Kunia Orchid Society, and the 86-year-old grows sentimental, talking fondly of her fellow participants and the location of the society's shows for 53 years -- the Del Monte Kunia Gymnasium.
53rd Kunia Orchid Show
» On view: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and tomorrow; 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday
» Place: Del Monte Kunia Gymnasium
» Admission: $2
» Call: 623-8585
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The theme of this year's show is appropriate: "The End of An Era." About 6,000 people are expected to attend the three-day show at the gymnasium one last time. Next year, the show will move to Leilehua High School in Wahiawa.
"I am just so sad," said Rabago, holding aloft an orchid in her greenhouse named, appropriately enough, "Love Memory."
The Kunia Orchid Society was formed by cannery employees of the California Packing Co. and the gymnasium was its first home. Rabago and her husband, Lucio, 87, are original members.
The society is at its peak in membership -- 100 -- and many members see the club and the old-time gymnasium as going hand and hand.
Once a dilapidated building with holes in the floor, the gym has been spruced up and repainted in recent years. But it's owned by Del Monte Fresh Produce, which is shutting down its Hawaii operations, so the club opted to move the orchid show, given the uncertainty about future availability of the gym.
Another original club member, Psyche Wong, can recall the early days, when gearing up for an orchid show at Kunia meant working a 9-to-9 schedule, and volunteering for overnight watches to guard the orchids.
"It was good fun and hectic," said Wong. "We'd be talking, eating burgers, and then rush home to shower at 7 and be back for the show at 9 a.m."
The drive up the bumpy road leading into the village every first weekend in March conjures warm memories for Noelle Sutherland, who joined the club just two years ago, but has been a longtime attendee of the shows.
"I came here since I was 12 or 13," she said. "I loved coming to 'town.' "
"It is the end of an era," said Penny Hattal, club president. "It's so sad whenever you talk about it ... I'm feeling misty about this place."
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Ernest Laboguen left, display chairman for the Kunia Orchid Society, sets up for the final plant show to be held at the Del Monte Kunia Gymnasium. A large picture of the society's members will be among the exhibits .
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DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Part of the Rabago collection includes Ceratostylis rubra, an orchid retrieved from the jungles of the Philippines in 1960.
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