Kaū News Briefs Monday Dec. 12

Classic trucks and cars joined the Pāhala Christmas Parade yesterday. Photo by Julia Neal

PUBLIC INPUT ON THE HAWAIʻI FOREST ACTION PLAN update is being accepted through today. The plan, originally adopted in 2010, is managed by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Forestry and Wildlife. It covers thousands of acres of forest in Kaʻū and Volcano as well as other districts of the Hawaiian Islands. The updating of the plan is required by the  U.S. government for federal funding provided to each state for forest management.

The Hawaiʻi Forest Action Plan is being revised and the public
can weigh in today. Kaʻū Forest Reserve, one of the state’s
largest, is included in the plan. Photo by Rob Shallenberger

    The Hawaiʻi plan draft states: “Our life in these islands is directly tied to the health of our forests and the role that they play in recharging our groundwater, springs, and streams.”
    The plan also explains the importance of Hawaiʻi being largely comprised of high islands, which “produce a precious commodity –  water.” The plan explains that, “As the tradewinds approach a high tropical island, the air that has traveled thousands of miles over the open ocean rises and drops its cargo of rain. Trees on the forested peaks also capture fog from the misty clouds. This rainfall and fog drip are essential in sustaining life on the high islands,” supporting the windward rainforests and cloudforests and the drier leeward forests.
    The draft covers all of Hawaiʻi’s forest land ownerships — state, private, and federal — and views forests as a whole rather than by programs. It enables the Division of Forestry and Wildlife to integrate the many programs in one planning document.
     David Smith, State Forester and administrator for DOFAW, said, “This plan helps us to keep current on recent advances in forest conservation and watershed management, identify new threats that have emerged since 2010, and incorporate recent progress made with development of the forest products industry and planning on climate change.
    “We hope this information will be used to influence our communities, our state and national governments, and other leaders to invest in Hawai‘i’s forests for the future,” Smith said.

    The Executive Summary says that the makers of the plan “have renewed our commitment to the cultural values and land stewardship ethic that we have inherited from the native Hawaiians: the passing of knowledge from one generation to the next, a deep respect for the ʻaina (the land that sustains us), the aloha spirit that binds us as a community, and a commitment to doing our part as responsible stewards of the 21st century ahupuaʻa.”
     It also refers to the state motto Ua Mau Ke Ea, O Ka ʻĀina I Ka Pono, which means “The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.” The plan says that the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife does “not simply hang this motto on the wall; in cooperation with our partners and volunteers we strive every day to do the right thing, to ensure that the land is cared for and preserved into perpetuity.”

     The Hawaiʻi Forest Action Plan, with more than 300 pages, has detailed history of land use and management in Hawaiʻi.
    It identifies nine priority areas: water quality and quantity; forest health, invasive species, insects and disease; wildfire; urban and community forestry; climate change and sea level rise; conservation of native biodiversity; hunting, nature-based recreation, and tourism; forest products and carbon sequestration; and US tropical island state and territorial issues.

      Key goals in the plan seek to:
     • Protect and manage forested watersheds for production of fresh water supply for public uses now and into the future;
     • Maintain biological integrity of native ecosystems;

     • Provide public recreational opportunities;

     • Strengthen the economy by assisting in the production of high quality forest products in support of a sustainable forest industry.
      View the Hawai`i Forest Action Plan draft at dlnr.hawaii.gov.
      Comments may be submitted in writing to: Robert.D.Hauff@hawaii.gov or to Forest Action Plan, Division of Forestry and Wildlife, Room 325, 1151 Punchbowl St., Honolulu, HI 96813.

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Bid on these pigs through Dec. 20 at Kaʻū High School.

A SILENT AUCTION FOR PIGS grown at Kaʻū High School is taking place through Dec. 20. Staring bid is $120 per pig and each pig is 70 to 100 lbs in weight. The three highest bids give the bidders each a pig. Place bids at the office in Kaʻū High School, said teacher Michael Moe who is helping the students who raised the pigs at the campus. Raising the pigs along with hydroponic lettuce, macadamia and other foods are part of the rebounding of agriculture at Kaʻū High School.
To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar.

Jasmi Beck

VOTE TODAY TO SUPPORT JAMI BECK for Miss Photogenic in the Miss Teen Hawaiʻi Pageant. The deadline is Monday, Dec. 12. Beck will participate in the statewide pageant on Sunday, Dec. 18 at Neil Blaisdell Center in Honolulu. Beck is a graduate of Kaʻū High School and attends the University of Hawaiʻi in Hilo. She is a youth ranger at Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. She is supported by Kaʻū Coffee Growers Cooperative. Beck tied for talent and came in first in the swimsuit division in Miss Kaʻū Coffee 2016. Vote at Facebook.com.
To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar.

PĀHALA CHRISTMAS PARADE was a resounding success,

yesterday, said organizer for 38 years, Eddie Andrade. The parade rolled through the village between rains, with Kaʻū Coffee queens, marchers, riders, classic cars, fire engines, police cars, Trojan girl basketball players and many church and community organizations.

     Tutu & Me marched and showed off its van. The non-profit with early childhood education programs in Kaʻū will host a Keiki Christmas Fund day and Open House for all keiki birth to five years of age, along with their caregivers on Tuesday, Dec. 20 at Pāhala Community Center.
     See more parade photos in tomorrow’s Kaʻu News Briefs.

Tutu & Me will host a program for keiki birth to five years of age
and caregiver on Tuesday, Dec. 20. See more photos in tomorrow's
Ka`u News Briefs.  Photo by Julia Neal

DEADLINE FOR THE DIRECTORY, to sign up for listings and advertising for businesses, community
groups, churches and agencies is Dec. 15. The annual business and community resource guide is sponsored by Kaʻū Chamber of Commerce and produced by The Kaʻū Calendar. It includes photography and art by Kaʻū residents, a calendar of events, listings and feature stories including winners of the recent Beauty of Kaʻū art show, sponsored by the Chamber. The Directory raises scholarship money for students from Kaʻū throughout their higher education in trades, college and university studies. Printed each January, 7,500 copies of The Directory are distributed throughout Kaʻū and Volcano. To sign up, contact geneveve.fyvie@gmail.com.

Pāhala Preschool participates each year in the
Pāhala Christmas Parade. See more photos in
tomorrow's Ka`u News Briefs. Photo by Julia Neal

FRIEND-RAISER IS NĀʻĀLEHU ELEMENTARY SCHOOL’S Winter Fest theme for Saturday. Dec. 17 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. “Make New Friends,” declares the poster, which also reports on opportunities to enjoy shave ice, drinks, hot dogs – all for $1. Games are 50 cents. Also featured is a bounce house, raffle, bake sale, splash booth, jail, face painting and information vendors. Winter Fest is sponsored by the Nāʻālehu School Council.

REP. RICHARD CREAGAN’S OCEAN VIEW FORUM  will be held at Ocean View Community Center next  Monday, Dec. 19 at 6 p.m. Creagan represents District 5 in the Hawaiʻi House of Representatives and chairs the Committee on Agriculture. District 5 includes Honuʻapo to Nāʻālehu, to Ocean View, to Capt. Cook, Kealakekua and part of Kailua-Kona.

CHRISTMAS IN THE COUNTRY is ongoing through the holidays at Volcano Art Center in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. Free; park entrance fees apply.

VOTE FOR THE BEST DECORATED Kilauea Military Camp cottage through the holidays.

See www.kaucalendar.com

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS AT PAHALAPLANTATIONCOTTAGES.COM AND       KAUCOFFEEMILL.COM. KA`U COFFEE MILL IS OPEN SESVEN DAYS A WEEK.

Ka`u News Briefs, Sunday, Dec. 11

Mr. and Mrs. Claus and helper Mary Jane Balio have been hosting the
Pahala Christmas Parade for nearly four decades.
It starts at 1 p.m. today. Photo by Julia Neal

PROTECTING MEDICARE from privatization and voucherization is a major focus for Sen. Mazie Hirono. She testified in Congress this past week that for many people in Hawaiʻi “Medicare is the difference between life and death, between living with dignity or in abject poverty. It is as dramatic as that. Before we passed Medicare 51 years ago, slightly more than half of seniors, our kūpuna in Hawaiʻi, had health insurance. Millions could barely afford routine medical care, let alone treatment for catastrophic illness” until Medicare was established, she said.

    Hirono called Medicare “a part of the commitment we have made to care for and honor our kūpuna.”
     However, there are efforts in Washington D.C., she said, to privatize and voucherize Medicare. She called the campaign “a clear and present danger to seniors” and promised to “do everything in my power to stop our new president and his allies in Congress from shredding this crucial safety net program.”

    Hirono reported that over the past months U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan “has made it clear he intends to resurrect his plan to turn Medicare into a voucher program for private insurance. Under his system private insurers could deny or delay coverage because seniors would no longer have Medicare’s consumer protections. His plan caps the value of the vouchers to the point they will not keep up with the rising cost of health care,” Hirono contended.

    The Congressional Budget Office, Hirono reported, calculated that the Ryan plan would increase out of pocket expenses to $6,000 a year for millions of seniors, many of them already on fixed income. She said voucherzing Medicare would hurt more than 217,000 seniors in Hawaiʻi.

    Hirono said privatizing would lead many seniors to search the private market to find health insurance. “How do you think they will be able to accomplish that? Are the insurance companies going to step up to take care of some the most vulnerable members of our population even though it is not profitable to do so? I don't think so,” she said.

    She pointed out that during his campaign for President, Donald Trump “said the right things about protecting Medicare, but choosing Tom Price to head the Department of Health and Human Services sends the opposite message.” She said that for years Price has been Ryan’s closest ally in his crusade to privatize and voucherize Medicare.

    Hirono called saving Medicare “a daunting fight but I am not going to shy away from it. I am going to do whatever I can, whenever I can to protect Medicare for our seniors.”

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“STANDING UP FOR MIDDLE CLASS WORKERS” is how Sen. Mazie Hirono described her vote. She joined with 36 U.S. Senators who banned together “after Congressional Republicans moved to deny thousands of mine workers and widows the health care they earned,” she said. Senators who voted together Friday against a government funding bill that reduced health care for retired miners and families, included Brian Schatz, Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, Sherrod Brown and Harry Reid. The hui wanted the bill that funds the federal government to guarantee the miners’ health insurance for a longer commitment. The funding bill passed without it, but the Senators said they made their point, illuminating the dangers on the horizon for health care.   

Sen. Mazie Hirono said she voted for health care protection

for retired coal miners to send a message to Donald 

Trump and Congress. Photo from Readers Magazine

   Hirono said that, “People in our country need to know who’s on their side. Workers in this country are getting screwed every single second, minute, and hour of the day. I’m taking a stand on this bill to stand with them. This fight is not just about coal miners. It’s about all working people. Today, it’s the coal miners. Tomorrow, it will be federal workers and other labor unions.
    “I opposed this bill to send a message to Congressional Republicans and President-elect Trump. I will resist every attempt they make to weaken unions or to deny working people the benefits they’ve earned,” Hirono promised.

To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar.

U.S. SEN. BRIAN SCHATZ WILL OPPOSE DONALD TRUMP’S NOMINEE FOR CHIEF OF EPA. Schatz posted on his facebook: “President-Elect Donald Trump nominated a climate change denier to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. This is offensive and I'm going to do everything I can to stop him from being confirmed,” said Schatz.
     The nominee is Scott Pruitt, Attorney General for the state of Oklahoma. According to Forbes, Pruitt is suing the EPA over Pres. Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan and describes himself as a “leading advocate against the EPA’s activist agenda.” “Partnering with utilities, oil, gas, mining and other industrial companies, the Pruitt suits also fight federal rules aimed at protecting endangered species and improving air quality,” Forbes reports.

To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar.

Jami Beck

PĀHALA CHRISTMAS PARADE IS TODAY, beginning at 1 p.m., starting at Pāhala Armory and winding through the hillside village to Kaʻū Hospital and ending at Holy Rosary Church where there will be refreshments. It is the 38th year for the parade organized by Eddie Andrade. Community groups, churches, politicians, sports teams, Kaʻū Coffee farmers and musicians often participate.

DEADLINE IS TOMORROW TO SUPPORT JAMI BECK for Miss Photogenic in the Miss Teen Hawaiʻi Pageant. The deadline is Monday, Dec. 12. Beck will participate in the statewide pageant on Sunday, Dec. 18 at Neil Blaisdell Center in Honolulu. Beck is a graduate of Kaʻū High School and attends the University of Hawaiʻi in Hilo. She is a youth ranger at Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. Vote at Facebook.com.

FRIEND-RAISER IS NĀʻĀLEHU ELEMENTARY SCHOOL’S Winter Fest theme for Saturday. Dec. 17 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. “Make New Friends,” declares the poster, which also reports on opportunities to enjoy shave ice, drinks, hot dogs – all for $1. Games are 50 cents. Also featured is a bounce house, raffle, bake sale, splash booth, jail, face painting and information vendors. Winter Fest is sponsored by the Nāʻālehu School Council.

REP. RICHARD CREAGAN’S OCEAN VIEW FORUM we will be at Ocean View Community Center on Monday, Dec. 19 at 6 p.m. Creagan represents District 5 in the Hawaiʻi House of Representatives and chairs the Committee on Agriculture. District 5 includes Honuʻapo to Nāʻālehu, to Ocean View, to Capt. Cook, Kealakekua and part of Kailua-Kona. A statement from his offices says that in his new chairmanship, he “is excited to help the Big Island and all of Hawaiʻi increase agriculture for all farmers across the State.”

CHRISTMAS IN THE COUNTRY is ongoing through the holidays at Volcano Art Center in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. Free; park entrance fees apply.

TUTU & ME WILL HOST A KEIKI CHRISTMAS FUN DAY and Open House for all keiki birth to five years of age, along with their caregivers on Tuesday, Dec. 20 at Pāhala Community Center.
To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar.

See www.kaucalendar.com

     

Ka`u News Briefs, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2016

Night serenade of Pāhala homes this week with caroling from Thy Word Ministry. Photo by Julia Neal

RELEASE THE REPORT ON RUSSIAN INFLUENCE IN THE U.S. ELECTIONS, Sen Mazie Hirono urged yesterday. The Hawaiʻi U.S. Senator stated: “Earlier this year, our country’s intelligence agencies made a unanimous and unprecedented announcement. The Russian government hacked, interfered, and meddled in our elections.”
     Hirono noted that yesterday, President Barack  Obama “announced an investigation into Russia’s interference. This is an important step, but the president has not committed to releasing the report's findings to the public. The American people deserve to know if external forces are tampering with our votes and undermining our democracy,” stated Hirono.
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DEADLINE TO VOTE FOR HŌKŪLEʻA in the National Geographic’s 2017 Adventurer of the Year contest is coming up next Friday, Dec. 16. The Polynesian voyaging canoe, which has stopped numerous times in Kaʻū, is on an international mission, encircling the planet and teaching the skills of Polynesians who sailed to the Hawaiian Islands from the South Pacific and made Hawaiʻi their home as its first human inhabitants.

Nainoa Thompson, of Polynesian Voyaging Society.
Vote for Hōkūleʻa to be National Geographic’s 2017
Adventurer of the Year. Photo by Teresa Tico

     National Geographic writer Aaron Teasdale reported that, “Historians once insisted that Polynesia, the vast sweep of Pacific Ocean and a thousand widely scattered islands from Hawaiʻi to New Zealand, was settled by chance, with early Polynesians in rudimentary rafts blown randomly from island to island. In the mid-1970s, a small group of people in Hawaiʻi set out to prove them wrong. They re-created a classic Polynesian voyaging canoe and named it Hōkūle‘a, after an important star for navigation. Their dream was to sail across the sea to Tahiti and prove their ancestors were purposeful navigators of the Pacific.”
     The Polynesian navigator Piailug guided Hōkūle‘a’s first crew in a 31-day, 2,400-mile open-ocean voyage to Tahiti. “To their surprise, a crowd of 17,000 euphoric Tahitians greeted them on shore. The seafaring culture of Polynesia was reborn,” Teasdale wrote.
     Since then, the Polynesian Voyaging Society, led by Nainoa Thompson, with Hōkūle‘a and her sister canoe, have provided much education to the residents of the Hawaiian Islands and beyond.
     In 2013, Hōkūle‘a and its hui set sail on the round-the-world voyage. This voyage is now on National Geographic’s prestigious short list of outstanding adventures. Perhaps the voters of the world will judge the Hawaiians’ inspiring canoe trip by celestial navigation to have been the ultimate adventure?
     To vote for 2017 Adventurer of the Year, go to National Geographic website: www.nationalgeograhic.com. Voting is allowed daily.
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Jami Beck is up for Miss Photogenic
and the public can vote online this week.

ONLY A FEW DAYS REMAIN TO VOTE ONLINE FOR JAMI BECK for Miss Photogenic in the Miss Teen Hawaiʻi Pageant. The deadline is Monday, Dec. 12. Beck will participate in the statewide pageant on Sunday, Dec. 18 at Neil Blaisdell Center in Honolulu. Beck is a graduate of Kaʻū High School and attends the University of Hawaiʻi in Hilo. She is a youth ranger at Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.
     Beck told The Kaʻū Calendar, “I am so appreciative of the support I have received from the community. Terry Shibuya mentors me through the pageant process and is instrumental in helping me securing sponsors. It is so heartwarming to receive support from the Kaʻū Coffee Farmers Cooperative, O Kaʻū Kakou, Punaluʻu Bake Shop, Dorvin Leis Mechanical and many other individuals." Vote at Facebook.com.

To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see Facebook. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter.

TUTU & ME WILL HOST A KEIKI CHRISTMAS FUN DAY and Open House for all keiki birth to five years of age, along with their caregivers on Tuesday, Dec. 20 at Pāhala Community Center.

OCEAN VIEW'S OWN MICHAEL CRIPPS WILL BE THE CONDUCTOR at the Chamber Orchestra of Kona’s Christmas Concert on Tuesday, Dec. 20 at the Sheraton ballroom in Keauhou. The Chamber Orchestra of Kona, also called the COOK, is comprised of about 37 musicians, and performs about four concerts per year, all of which draw a large and loyal following of music lovers.
     For the COOK, Cripps as the conductor, is an answer to prayer after the newly appointed conductor had to recently withdraw due to ill health. For Cripps, however, this is the opportunity of a lifetime – the culmination of studying, learning and honing his skills as a musician since he was nine years old when he dreamed of one day being a conductor. Cripps was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, the son of a professional jazz bass player, who took charge of the school band and also taught all the musical instruments to elementary school students. “He was passionate about getting kids started,” recalls Cripps. “He was really good at inspiring kids to play, and taught me in the fifth and sixth grades.”

Michael Cripps  Photo by Peter Bosted

  Cripps began learning the cello when he was nine –  a large instrument for a young boy. But he was helped with private lessons from the cellist who played in the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. The lessons lasted through high school. While mastering cello, Cripps was able to learn to play a wide variety of other instruments – like both the violin and viola at age 11, then trombone at 12, and at age 13, tuba and euphonium, which resembles a tenor tuba. At 14 he learned the flute, which came in handy his first year of college at the University of Central Arkansas. There a musician had to withdraw suddenly from the marching band so Cripps was able to take her place playing the piccolo.
     In 2005 Cripps took private lessons in learning to conduct an orchestra, which included practicing on the college orchestra. In 2006, he was included in an exchange of music students with China. Cripps spent a summer playing Chamber music and touring with a Chinese orchestra, and was once allowed to conduct the orchestra for one piece.
     “Chinese musicians are very passionate about music and technically they are very good. This tour helped me set my sights higher and stoked my ambitions,” explained Cripps. In 2007 he returned to China with his cello for more touring. He was shown on Chinese TV making a speech about how music is the common language that binds us all together. He went on to say that music education is important as it opens doors to opportunities one could never have.
      In 2008 he graduated college with a Bachelors degree in Music in Performance. Faced with the need for a job to fund a car and rent, Cripps worked at the Dillards flagship store in Little Rock, while continuing to play professionally around

Ocean View conductor Michael Kripps will lead the Chamber Orchestra of Kona on Dec. 20
Photo from Chamber Orchestra of Kona

the state until 2010, when  Dillards promoted him to manager and relocated him to Dallas, Texas. Not enamored with big cities, Cripps and his partner grabbed a job offer and moved to the Big Island. Cripps is a Sales Manager at Macy’s in Kona.

      Cripps joined COOK as a cello player, and that led to more offers to play with other orchestras around the island, including the Kamuela Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchid Isle Orchestra, and the Kona Choral Society.
      On Sunday, April 10, the COOK performed a very popular concert at the Sheraton Hotel in Keauhou, which called for a tenor solo in a piece named ’O Sole Mio by Capurro. The best candidate for this, was COOK’s conductor at the time, Bernaldo Evangelista. Cripps modestly mentioned his conducting experience and so it was decided that for that piece, Evangelista would sing and Cripps would conduct.
     “I was extremely nervous as the time came for me to stand up and face the orchestra,” Cripps said. “But once the music started my nervousness drained away and I was able to focus and perform. It was the high point of my career – everything I had learned about the theory of music and playing all the instruments came to me and I could see clearly what to do and when to do it and why. I knew what the composer wanted and was able to communicate that to the orchestra and through it, to the audience. It was a very special moment.”
    The piece had the audience on their feet, applauding performances by both Cripps and Evangelista.
    This proved to be a turning point for COOK and Cripps. Whenever Evangelista’s health kept him from attending all the weekly rehearsals of the COOK, Cripps would take up the baton and rehearse the orchestra as the substitute conductor. Then, when Evangelista was forced to quit due to ill health, Cripps was the conductor of choice for both the musicians and the COOK management.
     Cripps exudes enthusiasm for his new position and the orchestra. “COOK is a very special orchestra – anyone can join – and the people who do love being here. When we all play together, it’s like magic.”

    Cripps is sure that being able to play so many instruments from such a young age has helped him become a better conductor.
    “I know how long wind instruments musicians can hold a note before they run out of breath – which is not the same as the brass players. I talk a lot to the orchestra when I am conducting at rehearsals. I usually have them run through the entire piece, and then go back and work on parts that were not quite right. I spend a lot of time studying the music at home, and I learn which are the important lines that need to be brought out.
      “COOK musicians have a large range of abilities – some are beginners, other professionals, and its my job to get them to work together. Make no mistake, it is a very good orchestra. These people are inspired and the want to play well together and they do. As a conductor, I have to find the middle ground between being too demanding and letting anything go.
      “I still feel intimidated when I stand up in front of the orchestra,” Cripps confides. “Music is a huge field and I, as the conductor, am expected to know everything. I have to feel that people are confident in my guidance. I have to use my knowledge of music theory to break the music down to different forms and levels so that I can see what the composer was really thinking when he wrote the piece. I have to use the orchestra to interpret the composer for the audience. I owe it to the musicians who trust me, and the audience who support us, to get it exactly right.”
     Kaʻū music lovers can see their Ocean View neighbor conduct the COOK’s program of classic Christmas music at the Sheraton hotel’s large ballroom, adjacent to the main hotel in Keahou.
     The concert is on Tuesday, Dec. 20, starting at 7 p.m. Kids up to age 17 are free. Schools will be closed at this time, presenting an ideal opportunity for young people to experience orchestral music along with Christmas favorites. Older music lovers can enjoy the debut performance of a conductor who is undoubtedly
      Adult tickets can be purchased at the door or on line at www.chamberorchestraofkona.com Preferred seating is the first three rows in the middle.

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THE LIVING MYSTERY SYMPOSIUM is today at Kīlauea Theater, and Sunday at Koa Conference Room.“Is the Supernatural the Super Natural?” asks New York Times best-selling author of Communion, Whitley Strieber. Also speaking is former Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Rice University, Jeffrey Kripal, ethnobotonist Terrence McKenna and author/talk show host Jeremy Vaeni. Kama‘aina pricing. Free park entrance upon emailed request. See www.jaylonproductions.com.

PĀHALA’S CHRISTMAS PARADE IS TOMORROW, SUNDAY, DEC. 11 at 1 p.m. The annual parade is in its 38th year and travels through the streets, winding up at Holy Rosary Catholic Church for refreshments. Organizer is Eddie Andrade.

INSPIRATION HIKE is today, 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Artists are invited to be inspired on a hike at the Kahuku Unit of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. Artists learn how nature can inspire them to connect with their own creativity on this free, moderately easy, 1.5-mile hike. Register by Dec 6. nps.gov/havo

ALYSHA & PETE 3-ON-3 BASKETBALL WINTER JAM tournament continues today through Sunday at the new Kaʻū District Gym. Public is invited to attend.. Age groups are ten and under, 12 and under, 14 and under, boys, girls and co-ed, as well as adults. The tournament raises money to help fund Trojan Senior basketball players Pete Dacalio and Alysha Gustafson to travel to the mainland with coach Jen Makuakane to look at colleges who may provide them with sports scholarships. To donate, call Summer Dacalio at 498-7336, Pete Dacalio at 498-3518 or Alysha Gustafson at 339-0858.

DEADLINE FOR THE DIRECTORY, to sign up for listings and advertising for businesses, community groups, churches and agencies is Dec. 15. The annual business and community resource guide is sponsored by Kaʻū Chamber of Commerce and produced by The Kaʻū Calendar. It includes photography and art by Kaʻū residents, a calendar of events, listings and feature stories including winners of the recent Beauty of Kaʻū art show, sponsored by the Chamber. The Directory raises scholarship money for students from Kaʻū throughout their higher education in trades, college and university studies. Printed each January, 7,500 copies of The Directory are distributed throughout Kaʻū and Volcano. To sign up, contact geneveve.fyvie@gmail.com .