Luau Keeps Kupuna In Good Hands
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Residents Lily Tom (left), Lydia Mahar and Yvonne Iaela
chat with administrator Sister Alicia Damien Lau
(center) in the Ohana Room at Lunalilo Home. The
Hawaii Kai facility for Hawaiian kupuna hosts a luau
later this month to help support its upkeep and
programs. Photo by Robert Macanas.
Melveen Leed and Holunape will entertain at Lunalilo Home’s annual benefit luau Jan. 27, timed to mark the king’s 172nd birthday and to raise much-needed funds to continue his legacy.
The luau runs from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on the grounds of the home with a menu of kalua pig, lomi salmon, chicken long rice, squid luau, laulau, raw crab, poke, sweet potato, poi, haupia, pineapple, juice and water. Tickets are $30 each with takeout available.
The food line is open until 12:30. For details, call Dawn Kuoha at 395-1000.
Proceeds will support programs, furnishings and equipment at the home for elderly Hawaiians, which is now in its 80th year at the Hawaii Kai site, but still struggling.
“The luau and annual golf tournament are not sufficient to keep the home going,” explained Sister Alicia Damien Lau, director of the facility for Ito Health Care Co. For example, just to install a fire exit ramp, she said, will cost $88,000.
Other concerns that must be addressed are a leaking roof (temporarily fixed) and termite damage to the wood flooring:“The home was closed for about four years (for major renovations), but termites are eating away at the new floors,“she said.“They were not treated apparently.”
It reopened in August 2001. But while the aging facility has its problems, its aging residents are a blessing, admitted the Franciscan nun, who is an RN as well as a certified nursing home administrator.
“I love working here,” she said. “Lunalilo Home is such a special place - the quiet five acres of land in Hawaii Kai, it’s just beautiful. The ohana, lokahi, unity. The Hawaiians are very fortunate to have this.
“You give the kupuna a ukulele and they’ll go off, get a group together and start singing.”
Located at 501 Kekauluohi St., the home currently has 34 residents and has a capacity for 42 “poor, aged and infirm people of Hawaiian ancestry,” according to the will of King William Charles Lunalilo. It also offers adult day care, and dietary services and respite care to senior citizens of all ethnic backgrounds.
Luau guests may park their cars at Kaiser High School and take a free shuttle service to Lunalilo Home.
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