For the fourth year in a row, about 200 Hawaiian Airlines employees and their families will work furiously into the early morning hours to finish their company's float in time for the King Kamehameha Day parade tomorrow. Airline’s teamwork
Pan-Pacific Festival
floats float
Holiday eventsBy Pat Gee
Star-Bulletin"We all get kind of daffy" in the last 24 hours before show time, says Debbie Nakanelua-Richards, senior manager of Hawaiian's Government and Community Relations Department. But, she added, it's "fun ... like therapy" to repeat the same motions involved in gluing a thousand flowers onto a float.
Hawaiian Air has been one of the two major sponsors of the 85th annual parade for the last several years, along with Grueninger Tours, according to Lucille Kalauokaaea-Kahele of the King Kamehameha Celebration Commission. The companies have contributed about $80,000 to the commission-organized event, she said.
The parade will be one of several statewide events held throughout the month. This year's theme, "Nana E Ka 'Oiwi," means "look to the native resources" or "let the young learn from the elders all the lessons of life."
Lindsay Pollock, a former marketing vice president with Hawaiian, designed the float to depict the company's slogan, "Wings of the Islands," or "Ho 'E Heu." He is also responsible for getting the materials for the float, which should cost $10,000 and a countless number of volunteer hours.The focal point of the float will be a mother nene (goose) and her two goslings constructed with grasses from the Big Island, surrounded by lava rock made of Japanese seaweed, or nori, fake ohia-lehua trees and about a thousand earth-tone roses, he said.
Participants on the float will depict a mother showing her daughters how to sew feather leis, and a grandmother dancing with her daughter and granddaughter, Pollock said.
Nakanelua-Richards said the project has been a great morale booster for the company's employees, who never get to know people from other departments in their daily routine.
The employees like contributing to something creative that looks "impossible" when they first see the sketches, but on the day of the parade, they go, "Wow!" she said.
The 22nd Annual Pan-Pacific Festival Ho'olaule'a, showcasing the culture and pageantry of Japan and Hawaii, will be held tonight from 6:30 to 10 p.m. on Kalakaua Avenue. Pan-Pacific Festival
Ho‘olaule‘a hits WaikikiFive stages will be set up for entertainment.
A parade and bon dance will be held Sunday. The parade, from 5 to 7 p.m., will start on Kalakaua Avenue at Fort DeRussy and end at Kapiolani Park.
The dance, a traditional Japanese event to honor ancestors, will be held from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at Kapiolani Park. A mini-concert by Kiyoko Suizenji will follow.
The ho'olaule'a will be located on Kalakaua between Lewers Street and Kaiulani Avenue, which will be closed to traffic. Parking will be prohibited from 3 p.m. to midnight on certain sections of Kalakaua, Lewers, Kalia Road and Seaside Avenue.
Parking will be available at the Honolulu Zoo and along Kapiolani Park, and at the ProPark lot at Hula Hut at 270 Saratoga Rd., across from the Waikiki post office.
For more information, call the Matsuri in Hawaii Committee at 926-8177.