LIHU’E — Gwen Hashimura of Lihu’e and Laura Lo’i of Kapa’a brought their children to the Boy Scouts’ Outdoor Expo/Makahiki Show at Vidinha Stadium yesterday for a good time. And when Hashimura and her two boys – Turner, 6, and
LIHU’E — Gwen Hashimura of Lihu’e and Laura Lo’i of Kapa’a brought their children to the Boy Scouts’ Outdoor Expo/Makahiki Show at Vidinha Stadium yesterday for a good time.
And when Hashimura and her two boys – Turner, 6, and Reese, 4 – and Lo’i and her son, Iona, 6, left the day-long event, they decided that scouting would be apart of their futures.
The parents said they were impressed with projects created by Scouts, including a wooden bridge lashed together with ropes, a display in which fire was created without a match, and man-made tunnels that challenged one’s survival skills.
Hashimura and Lo’i also said they want their children to be part of an organization emphasizing “integrity, good values and morals.”
The Makahiki show was intended to show parents what the Boy Scouts is all about and to raise funds for scouting activities, said Kaipo Kealalio and Greg Naganuma, officials with the Kaua’i District of the sponsoring Aloha Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
The event has been held yearly on Kaua’i since 1910, when the Boy Scouts was created and Kaua’i became one of the first islands in Hawai’i to boast a Scout unit, Kealalio said.
Similar festivals are held on the other islands.
A products exposition that featured kayaks, bicycles, remote-controlled model cars and a Hawaiian canoe was added this year to enhance the Kaua’i event.
Hashimura said the event allowed her children to understand “old-fashioned values” promoted by the Boy Scouts.
“In this age, we don’t have a lot of heroes,” Hashimura said. “But with the Boy Scouts, they have good leadership to look to.”
The values on which the Boy Scouts organization was created more than 90 years ago are still relevant today, said Kaua’i Scout leader Doug Carvalho.
“The Boy Scouts adjectives still stand for something: Loyalty, trustworthiness, physical fitness and moral strength,” Carvalho said.
The Boys and Cub Scouts programs also help strengthen family ties, said Vianne Tabata, who heads the membership committee of the Boy Scouts group on Kaua’i.
“We have all types of programs – lifesaving, swimming, soil conservation, science, basket-weaving and camping,” Tabata said. “There are over 100 projects through which they can learn skills that will benefit their community, their country.”
These skills, she said, will help them after they leave Scouting.
A mother at yesterday’s event said her three sons, all Scouts, have learned about responsibility, discipline and cooperation that will help them become good citizens as adults.
Gail Masuda, a den mother for Cub Scout Pack 270 in Kalaheo, said her Cub Scouts have learned how to be resourceful. She said her group’s kite-making demonstration showed what can be made with limited resources.
“It teaches them ingenuity and that they have to use what they have,” Masuda said.
One of the displays that drew large numbers of onlookers involved making fire with either a small bow or leather strap and a stick rubbing against the flat side of a small board.
Also on display were water target and rescue crafts from Pacific Missile Range Facility, Coast Guard station at Nawiliwili Harbor and Coast Guard Auxiliary, a canoe from the Niumalu Canoe Club, fire emergency vehicles and equipment from the Kaua’i County Fire Department, a motorized water safety vehicle and photo display by the Kaua’i County Water Safety Division, a bicycle display by John Tanner Bicycle Shop and an archery display by the Barking Sands Archery Club.
Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net
