KOLOA — Desirae Kamai-Santos had a bittersweet Saturday. On one hand, she had an opportunity to enjoy the Koloa Plantation Days Parade with her young daughter Gracey along with several thousand people who lined the main roads in Koloa. With
KOLOA — Desirae Kamai-Santos had a bittersweet Saturday.
On one hand, she had an opportunity to enjoy the Koloa Plantation Days Parade with her young daughter Gracey along with several thousand people who lined the main roads in Koloa.
With a theme of Dancing: Plantation Style, entries from business and community organizations presented a variety of dance-themed entries for spectators to enjoy, many entries touting live entertainment to enhance the viewing pleasure.
Stella Burgess, coordinator for the annual event that comes towards the tail end of a nine-day Koloa Plantation Days Celebration, said the whole thing would not be possible without the participation and cooperation of the many community businesses and groups, such as the orange-shirted parade marshals.
Burgess noted that for this year, the children of the marshals awaited in a special pick-up site just short of the Dickie Chang narration station, and as the sea of orange approached the area, the “next generation of parade marshals” joined up with this year’s corps as the group continued its march to the destination Anne Knudsen Park where a ho‘olaule‘a picked up the festive atmosphere.
Beryl Moir, one of this year’s grand marshals had a load of fresh flower lei beside her in her decorated vehicle, Moir tossing the garlands to members of the audience as the parade made its way from the Koloa School through town before snaking its way to the park.
Robert Watts, the second grand marshal, was flanked by members of the Smith-Waterhouse clan that was wrapping up a family reunion to celebrate Watts’ 90th birthday.
A twist to this year’s event was the Remax station in the historic Koloa Dispensary Building as Cyrila Pycha had a pakini, or tub, filled with ice-chilled bottles of water that she distributed to parade participants, a welcome treat in the rapidly-warming Koloa morning sun.
“We wanted to do something for the event,” Pycha said. “And, finally, we figured the parade people needed cool drinks, too.”
Kaua‘i Springs, a Koloa-based water distribution company, hosted a similar station at the Koloa Chevron corner, James Satterfield’s offerings going to both parade participants and spectators, alike.
“There’s no power, here, so I iced everything down last night,” Satterfield said while handing out a cup of chilled fresh spring water. “I don’t really like the cone cups, but the people love it, so I’m not going to argue.”
To cope with the bottleneck of people trying to enter the Anne Knudsen Park, members of the Kaua‘i Junior Y.B.A. (Young Buddhist of America) had to turn out early so they could pre-sell wristbands as admission to the park.
But, despite this measure, lines snaked around the entry points, one advisor standing on a bench to announce that wristband holders should enter on one gate while those needing to purchase admission should enter on another gate.
Alan Villaflor, Jose Bulatao, and the Kasibulan Filipino Dance Group had already started the day’s slate of entertainment as Art Umezu, the Kaua‘i County Film Commissioner searched frantically for Kaua‘i Mayor Bryan Baptiste.
Meanwhile, over at the Kaua‘i—Kamehameha Schools Association food booth area, off duty Kaua‘i Police Department officer Kaleo Perez responded instantly when reports of a medical situation wafted through the crowded food tent, the sergeant crawling beneath the countertop and quickly swallowed up by the crowd.
“It’s only 11, and look at all this people,” Melinda Uohara, one of the Celebration leaders commented, obviously pleased with the turnout.
The Koloa Early Learning Center hosted a series of keiki activities, the Kwik-n-Kwazy Rentals people joined along with the inflatables for more keiki outdoor fun activities, and throughout the park, people could browse through items at the Silent Auction, take in cultural demonstrations from the kupuna of Ho‘oulu Ke Ola O Na Pua, inspect some of the plantation era hardware and equipment, or simply shop through three tents of crafters under the strains of music from the live entertainment highlighted by the performance of Dennis and David Kamakahi.
By this time, Shelly Cobb had made her way from her post on the Surf 95.5 float to where she did her duties as the emcee for the day.
All of this just served as an indicator that the hours were quickly approaching when Kamai-Santos would have to leave her daughter behind and return to her post in Iraq.
