Plenty of practice in public eye

The Kaneohe student has been a dancer, coach and secretary

WHILE working as an administrative assistant at a condominium, Pilialoha Gaison says she learned a lot about time management and keeping people happy.

The 22-year-old Kaneohe resident and Hawaii Pacific University junior will get plenty of practice at both as the new Miss Hawaii.

Less than a day after being chosen in a scholarship pageant Friday night at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, Gaison said she's got several TV and magazine interviews this week and will emcee the Miss Hawaii Outstanding Teen competition on Saturday.

Later there will be international travel representing Hawaii, work on her project of getting more leadership education into schools and, of course, the Miss America Pageant.

Gaison said yesterday that she's "really, really excited. ... It's going to be an exciting year."

The Kamehameha Schools graduate is the daughter of Blane* and Donnalei Gaison and big sister to brothers Kapulani, 21; Iokepa, 19; and Wakinekona, 11. Her father is the athletic director at Kamehameha Schools and a former University of Hawaii quarterback.

In addition to administrative work for the Banyan Tree Plaza, she has been a dancer for Tihati Productions shows at the Princess Kaiulani Hotel and a Kamehameha head cheer coach. That's when she's not working toward her business management degree at HPU.

Her long-term goal is to manage a resort or spa, but she might stop along the way to be a Honolulu firefighter.

Gaison described her ethnic heritage as "Hawaiian-Tahitian-Spanish-German-Italian-Filipino-Portugese -- or mixed plate," and said she's optimistic that the Miss America Pageant will be held in Las Vegas, as it was last year.

The date and location of the national pageant haven't been determined yet, she said. But her family is rooting for Vegas, she said.

Gaison won this year's pageant as Miss Island Ilima; she had previously competed as Miss East Oahu.

It already looks like being Miss Hawaii is going to be a 24-hour job, Gaison said. "I walked down a hallway (at the Hilton) this morning and people are like 'congratulations.'"

CORRECTION Wednesday, June 14, 2006 » Blane Gaison is the father of newly crowned Miss Hawaii Pilialoha Gaison. A Page A17 article Sunday misspelled his first name as Blaine. Please see the applicable Corrections Page for more information.