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November 23, 2005 - MidWeek The Islander

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Though he lives on Kauai now, musician Pancho Graham grew up in Kailua, all the while catching inspiration from the neighboring Irmgard Aluli ohana. “I loved the way the girls in that family played Hawaiian style bass,” Pancho recalls. He plays bass with Na Pali, a Kauai band that just released its second CD, Na Pali ... Another grownup influenced by his puka-pants days in Kailua is David Cole, CEO of Maui Land & Pineapple Co. David vows to balance his company’s land projects, keep the “p” in pineapple and build towns like the Kailua he remembers - a kid-centered neighborhood ...

Lynn Murata reports that the recent Hot Palaka Nights beef stew dinner show at Enchanted Lake Elementary School brought in a hot $1,000 for the Red Cross hurricane fund ... Speaking of eating, Karen Meyer‘s Castle High thespians collected 462 pounds of food on Halloween for needy kids ... Kathie Wells (263-6703) seeks 1,000 used tennis balls for Windward schools, so she’s started a competition among five Coldwell Banker offices to collect them. (She should have checked the Kailua Racquet Club after the women’s tourney last weekend.) The balls aren’t for eating; they act as slippers on student chairs so they don’t scrape the floor ... Marimed Foundation is collecting farms. Connie Sizemore reports that the youth rehab agency in Kaneohe (sailing) and Kahaluu (farming) has won an OHA grant to help start a vocational ag program on the Big Island’s Hamakua coast ... Oceanit’s Ian Kitajima brought his high-tech tools to a Castle High classroom Nov. 16 to show students how to build turbidity meters to measure pollution in Kawa Stream (which flows behind the campus). He also had Google Earth “flyby” images of the stream from on high. Ian raves about the satellite quality. For one thing, he says, it’s a lot cheaper than renting a helicopter to snap it himself with a hand-held camera ... Another new thingamajig, the Digital Fireplace DVD, is available at Wickerworks in Windward Mall. Distributor Robin Bergman of Kaneohe says it transforms any TV set into “a warm hearth” with the simulated crackle and pop of a slow-burning fire. And it won’t burn your house down ...

Colleen Hunter

Colleen Hunter (Castle ‘04), Jasmine Hillen (Castle ‘99) and Bradley Hirahara (Castle ‘97, Heald College ‘99) have all graduated from basic training with the Air National Guard in San Antonio, Texas ... Congratulations to St. Anthony Parish School’s boys volleyball team. Coaches Leland Tobias, Maynard Koa and Fred Hackbarth nudged them into first place in the Catholic Schools League. And don’t forget team mother Donna Ferreira ... Meanwhile in the classroom, St. Anthony students have maintained truly silent reading periods, enhanced by 200 pairs of earplugs from Coluccio Brothers and Manthos Engineering, who’ve been banging around on the roadway outside ... In the front row for South Pacific‘s final show were U.S. Rep. Ed Case and wife Audrey, whose 80-year-old aunt Grace Hikida played a nun in the musical. Other notable fans that day: Emma Veary and Randy Hongo ... Speaking of aunties, Kailua restaurateur Ed Wary says that his new Auntie Pasto’s in Kunia has been packed ever since Monsignor Terrence Watanabe did the blessing ... Windward folks in Army Community Theatre’s current Arabian fantasy, Kismet,are Eric Mueller, Billy Comstock and Melissa LaRosa (438-4480) ...

Pohai Nani held a memorial service recently for Vivian Thompson, 94, its well-known Hawaii children’s book author and one of the oldest Marine Corps veterans to attend the past three USMC birthday celebrations on the Kaneohe base. (She missed this year’s by a few days) ... Kamehameha Schools is currently videotaping a PSA on literacy starring - who else? - Wally Amos, who has high praise for the young producers’ efficiency. Look for it soon on a television set near you ... The executive chef at the K-Bay officers club, Renato Sabalburo, took second place in the retail/professional division of the Sam Choy Poke Contest Nov. 13. His creation: General’s Poke - but anyone dining at the O club can sample some