Established on Kaua‘i for two years, the Qi Center in Lihu‘e is planning its second anniversary celebration Sunday. The Qi Center, the second of its kind on Hawai‘i, was founded by Grandmaster Hong Liu in order to foster community health
Established on Kaua‘i for two years, the Qi Center in Lihu‘e is planning its second anniversary celebration Sunday.
The Qi Center, the second of its kind on Hawai‘i, was founded by Grandmaster Hong Liu in order to foster community health and wellness. Located at the old Immaculate Conception School site in Isenberg Tract subdivision, it offers complimentary healing practices, educational tools for wellness and Qi Gong, all of which are based on a 5,000-year-old natural healing health care system.
Many of the practices and services offered at the center are free to the public. “It’s a very giving center; a very naturally giving center,” said Lynn Muramoto, a volunteer who has been with the Qi Center for four years, before the center’s construction.
The center’s free weekly Hawaiian Elder Kupuna Program is attended by Hawaiian elders bused in from Anahola and the Westside. Every month the center hosts different humanitarian health event with topics ranging from a healthy heart to diabetes, asthma and allergies, as well as cancer.
The site boasts a tea room, that functions as a community space for people to sip and relax on the couches and armchairs, or select healthy food by using the self-serve checkout. The site also boasts free cooking classes, and, of course, lessons in what the center is most known for, Qi Gong.
The practice of Qi Gong is a set of exercises said to heal and strengthen the body from the inside out, targeting different organs through gentle movement. “The practices are simple. It’s an opening of the heart,” Muramoto said. “It opens the natural power points in the body.
“The act of Qi Gong is very gentle, relaxing, yet very powerful.”
Designed for those ages eight to eighty-eight, as the Qi Center aunties say, ‘If we can do it, anyone can.’”
All of the free services and health benefits have built quite a community at the center, which is run entirely by volunteers.
“The main thing is that people have results and that is why the volunteers keep coming back again, and since our health is improving, we naturally want to give back more,” Muramoto said.
Volunteer activities vary and include: sweeping floors, administrative tasks, leading classes and tea room help, all of which are performed by people from all different walks of life.
Volunteer Dale Rosenfeld enjoys volunteering in the tea room. “My involvement in the center began about a year and a half ago when friends sent about a dozen e-mails to me saying I needed to go to the Qi Center and hear about the lecture on diabetes.” Heeding that advice changed her life, she said.
She took three different classes and practices daily. She feels healthier physically, mentally and emotionally, she said.
Rosenfeld continues to volunteer at the center because she sees how the people that come through change for the better
In addition to witnessing others’ results, Rosenfeld found that “it was the first exercise program that has benefits that I could stick to,” much unlike the other Western exercise programs she had tried before.
She volunteers as much as her schedule will allow, something many others at the center also do even while holding down three jobs, or arriving at 5 a.m. before a full day of work. Rosenfeld said that there’s “so much of me that wants to give back to others,” due in large part to the results she received from attending the Qi Gong classes as well as the cooking classes.
The Qi Center hopes to expand their Asthma and Allergies Event, service more community members, expand their free seniors program and get the word out to the public.
The public will have a chance to visit the center and learn more about its services during the second anniversary 5 to 8 p.m. on Sunday. The anniversary is a potluck and attendees are welcome to bring whatever their hearts desire, Muramoto said.
The anniversary celebration program includes pulsating taiko drums by members of taiko Kaua‘i and Hawaiian slack key music by renowned Paul Togioka. There will also be a benefit drawing held at the event which includes prizes like a hand-tempered gong and hand carved gong stand given by Ray Nitta.
According to Muramoto, last year the potluck was so impressive many thought they were attending a sit-down dinner.
For more information about the hours of operation and services of the Qi Center, or its anniversary celebration on Sunday, call 639-4300.
Want to learn about Qi Gong?
Time: 5-8 p.m.
Date: Sunday
Place: The Qi Center at the old Immaculate Conception School ,3343 Kanakolu Street, Lihu‘e
