KAPA‘A — The postmaster, financial consultant, fireman and teacher all came because they were asked. The quartet worked diligently at their respective station to crank out batches of flying saucers in preparation for the crowd at the Samuel Mahelona Memorial
KAPA‘A — The postmaster, financial consultant, fireman and teacher all came because they were asked.
The quartet worked diligently at their respective station to crank out batches of flying saucers in preparation for the crowd at the Samuel Mahelona Memorial Hospital’s bon dance, Friday evening.
“This is the last event in our 90 days of celebration,” Josie Pablo, the hospital’s recreational activities director, said. “We kicked off the hospital’s 90th anniversary celebration three months ago with a special celebration honoring all our long term residents who were at least 90 years old, and this is the final event.”
The bon dance, a hana hou event since the calendar hosted by the Kaua‘i Buddhist Council finished earlier in the month, was a victim of a busy social calendar as a pre-season football game featuring the Kapa‘a High School Warriors and the Coronado High School Islanders summoned from down the hill at the New Kapa‘a Town Park stadium.
“But we’re going to have a crowd,” Pablo said while ladling soup into a waiting bowl of saimin. “People have been calling since they read it in the newspaper, so it looks like we’re going to have a crowd.”
Pablo is a longtime advocate of providing community events for the long term patients at the hospital, and the bon dance was started when the number of residents outgrew the capacity of the hospital’s single bus.
“Mr. Morita is our oldest resident who will be celebrating his 104th birthday next Friday,” Pablo said. “But he still can sing and drum like he used to when he used to go to bon dances.”
The event was born when Pablo was able to get the people from the different sections of the hospital to come together to create the popular community event.
“This year we’re lucky because we have a new group volunteering,” Elaine Morita, the hospital’s physical therapist, said.
That group came from the Lihu‘e Missionary Church and included the postmaster, the fireman, the financial consultant, and the teacher who worked over a grill to get the flying saucers done to its savory golden-brown filling.
“We’re practicing for when we do the Fall event around Halloween time,” said Arnold Leong, another volunteer, who along with Daniel and Peter Kawamura, were filling slices of bread with the flying saucer mix.
Along with the manpower, Leong brought along a new twist to the bon dance delicacy. An apple-filled flying saucer.
“It’s a fruititarian flying saucer,” Colleen McCracken, the hospital’s dietician, said, coining a new word to describe the culinary creation. “It’s like the regular flying saucer, but it has fruit in it. It’s not vegetarian, it’s fruititarian.”
Earlier in the week, the hospital’s staff, under Pablo’s leadership, had taken the long term patients to Lydgate Park for a beach outing where they were assisted by 15 students from the Okinawa Prefectural College of Nursing.
The bon dance was pushed back so it would not only be a fitting end to the hospital’s 90th anniversary, but also give a touch of home for the nursing students who started to trickle in the door with their home stay hosts.
The nursing students are being hosted by the Kaua‘i Community College nursing program and arrived last Sunday for a two-week stay in which they will become more familiar with western hospitals and medical facilities as well as hone their skills in English and Hawaiiana.
Members of the Kapa‘a Senior Center who provide entertainment for the hospital’s patients on a regular basis were joined by Rev. Midori Kondo of the Lihu‘e Hongwanji Mission as well as several of that church’s members as the music seared through the cooling air of evening.
Down the hill, another of the hospital’s staff, Placido Valenciano, was officiating at the pre-season football game.
“If I didn’t have to work this game, I’d be at the bon dance,” he said.
