You can take people off Kaua’i, but you can’t take Kaua’i out of their thoughts at Thanksgiving. That was one of the sentiments emerging from The Garden Island and KauaiWorld.com’s Readers Poll, in which the question was asked, “What are
You can take people off Kaua’i, but you can’t take Kaua’i out of their thoughts
at Thanksgiving.
That was one of the sentiments emerging from The Garden
Island and KauaiWorld.com’s Readers Poll, in which the question was asked,
“What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?”
Master Sgt. Sheri Cavalieri,
stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona, said being born and
raised on Kaua’i “set up my beliefs, integrity, my core, that I was able to
leave the island back in 1978 to join the Air Force. I’m thankful for my ohana
back on the island who send me their aloha, no matter where I’m stationed in
the world.”
Another transplanted Kauaian wrote anonymously, “I am thankful
for the opportunity to see what is happening on the beautiful island I left.
Although I do miss home, the sense of it being in front of me keeps me close to
it. For I know one day I will be back. I am thankful for family still living
there.”
And Mike Perski, in addition to “my loving family, our health and
happiness,” said he’s “very thankful for still having close friends on Kaua’i,
even though we are now living on the mainland.”
Attachment to Kaua’i was a
dominant feeling among people living here, too. For instance, Bob Labbe of
Wailua expressed thanks for living on the island, where he “can enjoy its
people and the beauty of His creation.”
Labbe also is grateful to be an
American. “Nowhere in the world are people as fortunate as we are in America,”
he said.
Another reader also was thankful “to live on the Garden Isle. The
beauty of the island and its people are something I never take for
granted.”
Warm feelings for practically you-name-it were showered by
several poll respondents. One of them, Danny Sagadraca, said, “I’m thankful for
the air that we breathe,” rainbows and sunsets, “warm baths, a cozy bed, a
shirt on my back, a roof over my head and meals to sustain me. I’m thankful for
my job, two productive hands and legs and a strong back. I’m thankful for a
wonderful wife and two delightful children. But I’m most thankful for a God who
gave his only begotten Son so that we may have a meaningful life, a wonderful
hope and a glorious goal.”
Staff writer Pat Jenkins can be reached at
245-3681 (ext. 227) and pjenkins@pulitzer.net
