CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
After making Memorial Day leis, Shafter Elementary School students Jessica Hightower, left front, Caedee Galapia and Samar Boyles and, back left, Anita Feleti and Shylynne Isidro playfully used plumeria buds and branches as hair decorations yesterday.
Kids skip recess
to sew leis for
Memorial DayThousands of schoolkids join
senior citizens in making 50,000 leis
Third-grader Tisha Bush skipped recess at Shafter Elementary School yesterday to make a lei for a great uncle she's never known.
"My mom's uncle died in a war, and I'm making a lei for him," she said. "It makes me happy that I can do this, because I wasn't alive when he died."
She is one of thousands of Hawaii schoolchildren who have joined senior citizens to sew 50,000 leis to decorate the graves at veterans cemeteries throughout the island as part of Memorial Day observances.
The leis, from all corners of the state, are collected and placed on the grave sites at National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl and the Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery in Kaneohe, said Ann Niino, of the city Department of Parks & Recreation.
Gene Castagnetti, cemetery director at Punchbowl, is grateful for students such as Tisha.
"Hawaii is unique because Punchbowl is the only national cemetery where leis are placed on every grave." said Castagnetti. "It's such a great tradition, but there is always a concern that there will not be enough leis to decorate all the graves."
Castagnetti explained the significance of decorating the graves with leis: "Flower leis are a floral tribute, symbolic of love and gratitude. It represents the delicate balance of life, in that it blooms, provides beauty and then fades away, like our lives."
Castagnetti hopes that there are enough this year and hopes more Oahu students will donate.
"Although Oahu has the largest population, for reasons unknown, we only get 10,000 leis from Oahu schoolchildren," he said.
Leis collected on the neighbor islands were delivered to Punchbowl yesterday in refrigerated containers.
On Sunday the Aloha Council, Boy Scouts of America, will continue the 52-year-old tradition of placing the leis at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Some 15,000 scouts will participate in a Good Turn Memorial Service, said Wade Taguchi, Kapiolani district executive for the Boy Scouts.
"Memorial Day gives meaning and remembrance to the American service personnel who paid the full measure of sacrifice with their lives during war," Castagnetti said.
Miles Okamura, operations manager of the Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery, hopes the Girl Scout Council of Hawaii can decorate the graves in Kaneohe on Sunday with flags and leis. "In the last two years, we haven't been able to because there just weren't enough leis," he said.
The Girl Scouts have helped decorate the graves for 12 years and have held a ceremony, said Jackie Reilly, membership development director for the Girl Scouts Council of Hawaii. "Our theme is to say thank you to all the deceased and all active military personnel."
A third-grader at Shafter Elementary is planning her own thank you on Memorial Day.
"I'm going to make more leis -- lots for my dad's friends in the military to say thank you," said Brittani Goss.
The Shafter students gave up play time to make leis. "This is important. We need to say thank you for the people who are protecting us," said fourth-grader Alexus Merritt.
