KOLOA — There was no rain on the parade in Koloa yesterday. Thousands of people took advantage of the morning sun that burned away vestiges of an overnight rain that blanketed Koloa town Friday night. “It rained pretty hard last
KOLOA — There was no rain on the parade in Koloa yesterday.
Thousands of people took advantage of the morning sun that burned away vestiges of an overnight rain that blanketed Koloa town Friday night.
“It rained pretty hard last night,” Koloa resident Hartwell Blake said, “But it cleared up this morning, and the weather is beautiful.”
Blake, who helped coordinate the marching unit for Koloa School, was one of the hundreds of people who flocked to the Anne Knudsen Park following the parade spearheaded through the efforts of Aunty Stella Burgess.
Burgess watched the proceedings from her golf cart which served to zip her to various points in the parade to pull everything together.
Burgess, who works at the Grand Hyatt Kaua‘i Regency Resort and Spa, was even more thrilled when the Po‘ipu resort was announced as Best in Show.
En route to their eventual Best in Show, the Grand Hyatt earned top honors with its equestrian unit as well as second place honors with its walking unit that featured its associates and their families garbed in different ethnic costumes.
In the equestrian judging, the Kaua‘i All Girls Rodeo Association and the Aloha Riders finished in a tie for second place with the riders from the CJM Country Stables taking third place.
Kukui‘ula Development Co. topped the walking unit judging with its group of associates descended from original plantation camp residents distributing bags of local-style snacks including iso peanuts, arare, banana chips and gummi bears.
However, on each label, there were sayings from camp life memories.
“We had seven kids in the family; one can Vienna Sausage had seven sausages so each kid could have one sausage. You could eat as much rice as you want, but only one sausage,” was the memory from John Rabasa.
John Isobe remembered, “As kids, we never thought of sugar as an industry; the cane fields, ditches and reservoirs were our playground. Life was simpler and it was good.”
Second place in the walking unit judging went to Malama Maha‘ulepu whose theme reflected that environmentalism permeated the days of plantation camps.
Kuku‘iula also topped the Decorated Vehicle class with its presentation of three vehicles — one bearing descendents of original plantation camps, the sites of which will soon blossom with houses from its developments, and the other two being a vegetable truck which not only served as a means of getting inexpensive quality produce to the plantation camps, but also as the coconut wireless on what was going on in the community. The third vehicle paid tribute to backyard farming and gardening.
Second place honors in the Decorated Vehicle went to the Koloa School Ukulele Band headed up by pastor Niles Kageyama, the initial funding and efforts also a product of Kukui‘ula Development Co.
Third place honors went to the plumeria-laden vehicle offered by The Beach House Restaurant featuring not only its queenly associates, but a host of keiki wielding fishing poles lavishly garnished with the fragrant plumeria.
Top honors in the Decorated Floats went to the associates of the Marriott Waiohai Vacation Club who were able to meld several segments of plantation life onto the bed of a flatbed truck and tying everything together through the vocal renderings of Troy Lazaro who recently returned from a tour of Japan where he was entertaining.
“It was fun,” Lazaro said. “We started working on the float since Thursday night, but everything came together Friday night.”
Two Filipino doormen and one enjoying the hot steaming furo was enough to earn Old Koloa Town second place honors for its Old Koloa Furo presentation, and the Waiohai Kids rounded out the leaders in the Decorated Float division.
The parade is the highlight of a nine-day celebration of the sugar history in Koloa town and serves to trigger memories and stories from the numerous residents who come to celebrate the large gathering.
Koloa Plantation Days wraps up today with the annual Plantation Days rodeo at the CJM Country Stables in Po‘ipu. The rodeo starts at noon and there is a dollar admission fee.
On the agenda are some fun events like the Wild Cow Milking as well as the exciting Bull Riding competition.
