The honor of being the Grand Marshal for Kamehameha Day Parade 2000, goes to Maile Jean Amorin, whose life thus far has been filled with interesting accomplishments. She has danced hula for many years, holds a black belt in judo,
The honor of being the Grand Marshal for Kamehameha Day Parade 2000, goes to
Maile Jean Amorin, whose life thus far has been filled with interesting
accomplishments.
She has danced hula for many years, holds a black belt in
judo, has won awards at holoku balls and was a police officer. She headed
security at south shore hotels, has ridden in many parades, is the mother of
four children and has her own Hawaiian wear business, Maile Visions of Kekaha.
Jean practiced martial arts while still in high school on O’ahu and earned
the coveted black belt when she was 21. A brief marriage led her to New Jersey,
and that’s where she stayed for the next seven years, working as a single mom
and dancing hula six nights a week. Then she decided it was time to come home
to Honolulu. That’s where she met and married her present husband, Bart Amorin.
He was hired at the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands, so the
family moved to the Garden Island and its size expanded.
Jean applied for
a job with the Kaua’i Police Department when she was eight months pregnant, and
was one of 12 candidates selected from more than 100 applicants. She began her
training six months later and spent five years serving the community as a
westside
patrol officer. She left that job to head security at The
Wa’iohai and Po’ipu Beach Hotels for the next eight years.
When she wasn’t
in uniform, in addition to raising her family, she was busy designing gowns
that she wore to several Prince Kuhio and Aloha Week holoku balls. And she
participated in numerous parades – riding as a member of pa’u units for various
islands, and eventually being honored as the pa’u queen.
She continued
making elegant Hawaiian gowns, deciding on designs for the gowns, designs for
the fabrics (and getting the fabric printed), making patterns and doing all the
cutting and sewing. She did fashion shows and custom ordered dresses and spent
several years working on a business plan through Alu Like and the Office of
Hawaiian Affairs. When she had six months worth of orders from JC Penney’s, she
arranged for a loan so she could start her own company.
There were
mistakes made, according to Jean, who said the first one was to try to make her
business base on Kaua’i. “There weren’t enough outlets for my work, then
the hurricane hit, and all business opportunities dried up.”
She
decided that as a one-woman company (with only occasional contract workers),
she’d have to move her operations to Honolulu. On O’ahu she started all over
again, working with other designers until she could branch out on her own once
more. One of her outlets was Native Books & Beautiful Things and although
it took several years, she was doing well enough that she was able to pay down
her loans. It also looked as though she was getting to the point where her
company would start being a profitable enterprise. Then she discovered she had
cancer, and her business and her life had to be put on hold.
