BYU-Hawai'i honors five for Ko'olauloa service
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Gladys Pualoa Ahuna, whose family has lived in Lä'ie for the past seven generations, has shared a unique combination of professional, civic, Hawaiian cultural and Christian service, not only in the Ko'olauloa community but as far abroad as Kona, New Zealand and the Cook Islands.
Ahuna, who retired in 1997 as Lä'ie Post Master after spending 42 years in the Lä'ie and Kaaawa Post Offices, began her active role in community and civic affairs the same year she started helping with the mail. During her tenure with the Post Office, Ahuna served on the Oahu Council and the Hawaii Chapter of the National Association of Post Masters U.S. She has also served as president of the Windward Chapter of the American Postal Union and said she has attended 20 years of Post Master conventions.
From 1955, the same year Ahuna went to work with the Post Office, she alternated serving with the Lä'ie Elementary and Kahuku High PTA organizations until all of her eight children graduated. During this 20-year span Ahuna was involved in the construction of Kahuku High's library, band room, gymnasium, cafeteria and administration building. She estimates she has attended 25 years of PTA conventions, and for her hard work, she received honorary lifetime membership in the organizations.
Like many youth who grew up in Lä'ie, young Gladys was involved with the old Hukilau program; and just about the time she was getting warmed up with her PTA service, she formalized her interest in cultural affairs in 1965 by getting involved with Hawaiian civic clubs. Later she helped form the Lä'ie-based Lanihuli Hawaiian Civic Club and currently serves as its president. She estimates she has attended 40 years worth of Hawaiian civic club conventions.
Ahuna also spent 12 years voluntarily as an elected member of the Lä'ie Community Association, serving two terms as its president. During her tenure she spoke at the dedication of the Polynesian Cultural Center's IMAX Theater with Elder Dallin Oaks and also represented the LCA at the dedication of the Kahawainui Stream flood control project with U.S. Senator Daniel Akaka and American Samoa Representative Faleomavaega Eni Hunkin.
During all of this, Ahuna also took the time to serve three terms or six years on the Ko'olauloa Neighborhood Board, including a stint as its chairperson. While on the board, she assisted Junior Primacio, Ahi Logan and Tom Pickard with the Kahuku Housing Phase I development, assisted with the Kahuku senior housing project, and used the opportunity to reach out and update all communities and people in Ko'olauloa.
But it wasn't until after her first husband, Willy Pualoa Jr., passed away after 47 years of marriage and she retired and married her second husband, Joseph "Tarzan" Ahuna of Lä'ie, that Gladys really started getting involved in fulltime volunteer work. Following a lifetime of intermittent church service and callings in Lä'ie, Gladys and Uncle Joe became fulltime missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1998, serving in Auckland and the Northland of New Zealand as well as the Cook Islands.
Returning to Lä'ie in 1999, she and her husband retired to Kona, but soon found themselves serving in the presidency of the new Latter-day Saint temple in Kailua-Kona.
The Ahunas "retired" again in 2001, but recently volunteered for a one-year service mission at the Polynesian Cultural Center. They also recently toured New Zealand as part of a Mormon Pacific Historical Society group. She says these last years of serving LDS missions with her husband have been the most enjoyable of all.
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Victoria "Sunday girl" Näpuananionäpalionäko'olau Kekuaokalani Mariteragi
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Lä'ie kumu hula Sunday Mariteragi, who was nicknamed "Sunday Girl" because she was born on that day, grew up in Käne'ohe and learned to dance hula at a very early age.
In 1963 her aunt, Sally Wood Nalua'i, who was the first kumu hula at the Polynesian Cultural Center, asked Sunday — who, though still in high school, was already helping lead the others in her aunt's halau — and three of her hula sisters if they would dance at the brand-new attraction. The rest of the story is hula history in Ko'olauloa.
For the next seven years, Sunday danced at the PCC. While there, she participated in the first PCC promo team tour to Japan, danced with Elvis Presley and also went on tour to the Hollywood Bowl and Salt Lake City, Utah. During this time she also directed Polynesian shows at the Moloka'i and Ilikai Hotels.
Soon after she earned her degree in physical education in 1970 from the Church College of Hawai'i, she started her career in education, teaching briefly at Kailua Intermediate and for the past 31 years at Kahuku High and Intermediate School. In 1970 she also married Tahitian cultural expert Raymond Mariteragi, who she met at the Polynesian Cultural Center, and started raising their family of three sons and a daughter who passed away.
After teaching P.E. at Kahuku for several years, Sunday settled into her role as Student Activities Coordinator for the past 26 years where she has influenced several generations of students by leading, guiding and molding them into leaders. In this capacity she has taught hundreds of North Shore students to plan, organize, coordinate and effectively implement the annual activities at the school such as Cheerfest, Songfest and May Night. In partial recognition of her work, the school named her "teacher of the year" in 1985 and "Outstanding Educator of the Year 1996."
"Aunty Sunday" says she never intended to make hula a part of her life plan, but about the same time she started teaching at Kahuku she also started working with a few cute little girls, teaching them hula and other Polynesian dances. In 1982 she formed her hälau, Näpuanänionäpalionäko'olau, and started teaching regular classes. Quite a few times since then she has said, "This is my last year," but the little girls kept growing in numbers, and eventually even bringing their own daughters for Mariteragi to teach.
In 1983 Polynesian Cultural Center president Ralph G. Rodgers Jr. invited Aunty Sunday to teach her hälau in the afternoon on the PCC grounds. Since then millions of guests have watched how hula is taught and preserved under Aunty Sunday's direction, and many of the young dancers have gone on to work in the PCC's luau, keiki fashion show, promo team, canoe pageant, island villages and night show.
That same year, and every year since Mariteragi has taken her hälau to the Queen Lili'uokalani Keiki Festival. She and her dancers have also participated in the Kaläkaua Festival, exhibited at the Merry Monarch Festival, and performed in Japan, San Jose and Hilo as well as countless times throughout Ko'olauloa. In 1990 Mariteragi helped originate the ongoing Moanikeala Keiki Festival at the Polynesian Cultural Center, in honor of Sally Wood Nalua'i. This year her hälau plans to go to Tahiti, and to England in 2007.
Sunday says, contrary to general belief, her passion is not in hula "but rather in the principles of righteousness that are associated with teaching hula." Teaching values and concepts that are pono gives Sunday her greatest satisfaction and motivation. She is also widely known for her commitment and determination. Her motto is to always go the extra mile, especially in forgiving and finding peace within oneself.
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Seiko Shiroma, 82, moved to Kahuku from Waiälua in 1935 when he was 12 years old, and he's still going strong.
A few years after he came to Ko'olauloa, Shiroma started working at Kahuku Plantation Company, first as a field hand, later as a lab analyst and machinist. From 1956-63, he took leave to work fulltime as manager of Union Insurance Service, Ltd., an ILWU/UPW-owned insurance agency.
Returning to Kahuku Plantation, Shiroma worked as an administrative department head until company operations closed down in 1971. He then went to work for the parent company, Alexander & Baldwin, for several more years as manager of employee benefits. In 1974 Shiroma went to work as operations manager for Blackfield Hawaii, which converted the old sugar mill into a visitor attraction and retail center. After that project was well underway three years later, Shiroma spent seven more years before formally retiring, working for the State of Hawai'i. His primary responsibilities included assisting the Department of Agriculture to obtain the former sugar cane land surrounding Kahuku to ensure that a major portion of it remained in agricultural production.
With his help and participation, the DOA eventually purchased 550 acres of land in fee under the State Agricultural Park program that provides long-term leases at reasonable terms for agricultural production. Today, 24 new farmers use 220 acres of the Kahuku ag park land.
In addition to his working career, Shiroma has always been very community minded. For example, even though he wasn't a member, he helped build the Kahuku United Methodist Church starting in 1964. Then, after he joined the church in 1970, he served for 19 years as its treasurer, chairman of the trustee group, and also chairman of the fundraising group which eventually bought the church property and two adjacent lots.
From 1964-66 Shiroma also served on the State Board of Education; and in 1967 Governor John A. Burns appointed him to a three-year term on the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.
In 1973 he became director of the Kahuku Housing Corporation which helped organize the former Kahuku Plantation tenants and arranged for them to obtain the unexpired leases on their village housing from Alexander & Baldwin. Shiroma also played a key role in helping the organization obtain Community Development Block Grant funds to subdivide the existing village and offer about 100 houses and lots in fee to the villagers at affordable prices.
From 1978-90 Shiroma served as director and president of the Kahuku Housing Foundation, Inc., which conceived and built the 33 low-cost senior rental housing units and community center just mauka of the Kahuku golf course.
Speaking of golf, as a member of the Kahuku-North Shore Strategy Committee which worked closely with Asahi-Juken, former owners of the Kuilima Resort, Shiroma worked for many years to arrange special discount golf rates at Turtle Bay for kama'äina living between Ka'a'awa and Mokule'ia. In addition, this North Shore golfing organization has also consistently donated money to the Junior Golf program in Ko'olauloa and the Kahuku and Waiälua High School golf teams. Shiroma, a former member of the Kahuku Golf Club, still plays the game once a week.
In addition, Shiroma has served on the board of directors of the Kahuku Federal Credit Union and Kahuku Community Hospital, and served for many years as secretary for the Kahuku Community Association.
He and his wife, Doris, who ran the popular Beauty Shop in Kahuku from 1950-71, moved to senior housing in Mililani two years ago to be closer to their daughter. True to form, he's since gotten active in some of their volunteer committees, but he said, "I still miss Kahuku very much." Of his many years of community service, he added, "It was my contribution. I had to do it, and I loved doing it."
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Michael J. Payton has shared a whole lot of talent with everyone in Ko'olauloa and made the Kahuku High marching band a nationally recognized talent for over the past 30 years.
After graduating from Hilo High and earning a bachelor's degree in music education from the University of Hawai'i, Payton took his first teaching job in mid-year 1967-68 at Nänäikapono, but he really wanted a band job "and the only opening was at Kahuku High," he said. He recalls he started with only 13 kids and also had to teach American history, but by the end of his first year he had recruited an 80-piece band.
It was the beginning of some powerfully beautiful music and marching band precision that have since garnered numerous honors and gone far beyond the North Shore.
The superior awards include performances in Aloha Week, Kamehameha Day, the Lions world convention, Haleiwa Sea Spree, governors' inauguration and other parades, including the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena. The Red Raider band, led by Payton, has also performed at Hawai'i state football championship half-time shows and played for U.S. President George Bush Sr. at Hickam Air Force Base
In the 1980s the Kahuku High marching band was rated one of the top-10 in America. They have been to the Holiday Bowl twice, the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida, twice; the Rose Bowl Tournament of Bands; and also won first place in the Midotsuji Parade International Division in Osaka, Japan.
Under his direction, Kahuku High was also the first marching band to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington, D.C. and the first public high school band to perform at Disney's Epcot Center in Florida. They have also performed at Disneyland in Anaheim, California.
In the process of all these unforgettable performances and awards, Payton has also collected numerous professional honors. For example, among many awards he was named Kahuku High and Windward District Teacher of the Year in 1978; Hawaii's "favorite teacher" in 1990, sponsored by ABC Television; color guard instructor for the State Department of Education's visit to Okinawa in 1992; and director and coordinator of the 2002-03 Hawaii All-State Marching Band.
After officially retiring in 1995, Payton continued as instrumental music teacher for grades 7-8 at Kahuku Intermediate School, marching band director and learning center coordinator. In addition to his public school teaching, Payton has also served as a percussion music specialist professor at BYU-Hawai'i, Kamehameha Schools summer school Academy of Music teacher, a professional drummer and member of the Musician's Association of Hawaii since 1960; and a professional marching band show designer, clinician and adjudicator.
"Mr. Payton" finally retired last year, after helping lead the 398-member Nä Koa Ali'i Hawai'i All State Band — largely anchored by Kahuku High band members — in the 2003 Rose Bowl parade through Pasadena, California. He recently formed his own small company, Drummerboy Miniatures, where he casts and paints figures of the Hawai'i Royal Guardsmen that are sold at 'Iolani Palace gift shop. He also casts and paints marching band figures with instruments as well as football players, undoubtedly inspired by some of the football players he accompanied from the sidelines over the years.
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Perhaps because he was born in a plantation community and spent 17 years working on sugar plantations, including eight years as manager of Kahuku Plantation Company, Fred Trotter has always had the interests of the land and working people at heart.
"Fred Trotter was one of the best managers we had at Kahuku. He was fair and all the workers liked him," said long-time associate and friend Junior Primacio. He was also known for building the morale of the employees and advancing rank-and-file workers into supervisory and management positions.
Trotter was a Kahuku resident who focused his workaholic energy on community service. For example, he served for years on the board of directors of Kahuku Hospital, where several of his children were born, and he was instrumental in helping it become more self-sufficient in those days. He only recently completed another term of service on the hospital board.
During the little spare time he took, he coached Little League and enjoyed diving with some of the workers at the plantation. Though he was a Campbell Estate heir, he enjoyed mingling with the employees and working in the fields. In addition, Trotter helped build the Kahuku United Methodist Church, and helped the church in its strategic planning. He is also responsible for planting the beautiful shower trees in Kahuku that add so much color to Kamehameha Highway when they're in bloom.
But it wasn't until after the Kahuku Plantation closed and Trotter began a 21-year career as a Campbell Estate trustee and spokesman, that he began to render even more significant service to Ko'olauloa: Trotter played a key role in encouraging the Kahuku villagers to acquire the leaseholds on their property and convert them to fee. He helped with the plans to develop new housing, including the senior housing kauhale. He also encouraged the Estate to continue supporting Kahuku High scholarships.
Also as part of his trustee role Trotter helped establish the North Shore Career Training organization and worked closely with the City Council and other governmental agencies to plan and secure the fire station, police sub-station, district park and new elementary school site in Kahuku.
Trotter's influence and touch has spread far beyond Ko'olauloa. For example, he has spent many years serving various business directorships, including Bancorp Hawai'i, Inc.; Bank of Hawai'i; Hawai'i Bancorp Leasing; Kikiaola Land Co., Ltd.; Waterhouse, Inc.; Long's Drug Stores, Maui Land & Pineapple Co. and Haleakalä Ranch. He is also involved with his own ranch in Oregon, consults various businesses, and works with selected political leaders.
Among his many volunteer activities Trotter has served as a long-time director of the Aloha Council of Boy Scouts of America; as chairman of the Blue Ribbon Committee for the Pacific Health Promotion and Development Center, which has benefited Hawaiians in Hauula and other communities; and he recently rejoined the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Pacific Foundation board.
In 1986 Trotter took over the lease of largely undeveloped property in Punalu'u and started Koolau Agricultural Company, turning it into cattle ranching, aquaculture, flowers and agricultural leasing operations for the next 15 years. Ko'olau Agricultural Co., which he turned over to his wife, Valerie Mendez Trotter in 1991, employed local residents and worked closely with both Kahuku High and local elementary schools on various agricultural projects. The company also adopted, maintained and cleaned Punalu'u Beach Park for six years.
From their long-term agricultural and land interests, both Trotter and his wife have been involved with a variety of regional and state land and water conservation organizations.
Trotter said he recognizes the need for additional housing in Ko'olauloa, but also wants to see the area remain rural in nature. "Enjoy it as much as you can," he added. "Hawai'i would be a very poor place without its share of agricultural property."
-- Photos and story by Mike Foley
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