LIHU‘E — There was no hurricane or storm on the horizon, but Kaua‘i Civil Defense Director Mark Marshall had a serious problem on his hands Monday. “I’ve got to get to the market to get more eggs,” he said, excusing
LIHU‘E — There was no hurricane or storm on the horizon, but Kaua‘i Civil Defense Director Mark Marshall had a serious problem on his hands Monday.
“I’ve got to get to the market to get more eggs,” he said, excusing himself outside the Lihu‘e United Church.
With about an hour remaining in the service time, the ladies manning the kitchen at the 31st Labor Day Breakfast reported no more eggs.
The serving lines were still long as the motorcycle riders pulled up in a thundering herd of brightly colored steel steeds.
“So far, we’ve served more than 250 adults, more than 75 children, and children under 5 years old don’t need tickets,” said one of the outdoor registrars as the first of the motorcycle riders approached the table to buy a ticket. “So, if we’re lucky, we might surpass last year’s numbers.”
Lyn Ratcliffe, celebrating her 90th birthday this year, said she’s been collecting tickets every year for a long time.
She spent time chatting with Leslie Laing, volunteering for the first time this year, and curious to find out more about Ratcliffe’s annual angel display that comes out in November for people to view.
“I hurt my foot last night, so now I’m cutting pastries,” said Joyce Jenney, another volunteer who has been volunteering for the past four or five years at the breakfast. “Normally, I’m in charge of the coffee.”
That was taken up by Marlena Bunao who not only handled the coffee chores, but picked up trays of prepared pastries and walked the tables, offering refills to patrons.
Don Collisom, a volunteer at the breakfast for 18 years, was assigned a new position, grilling pork sausage from a portable gas grill outside the kitchen, and relishing the cooling breezes that wafted through the hallway outside Ratcliffe’s station.
“This is absolutely amazing,” said Ron Clark of Ke Ala Hoku program. “There are 30 people from the church who spend hours preparing for this, and they get nothing out of it.”
Clark said proceeds from the breakfast benefit Ke Ala Hoku program, described as a grassroots effort of various Kaua‘i judiciary services, social service agencies, and community members to help ho‘okele, or recovering individuals, from returning to crimes and activities linked with illegal drug use.
Rebecca Reid of Ke Ala Hoku said the program was started through grants from the Wilcox and Antone and Edene Vidinha foundations with the Kaua‘i Association of United Church of Christ as the recipient.
That gave birth to Ke Ala Hoku, or The Star Path, that links ho‘okele to opportunities in the Kaua‘i community where they can experience accomplishments, spiritual growth, self-efficacy, and recreational enjoyment.
It assists men and women as they reunite with their Kaua‘i families and communities following incarceration related to illegal drug use, or following drug abuse treatment.
Ke Ala Hoku does this by securing transitional housing across the island for ho‘okele to receive a continuum of care and support as they rebuild their lives with their families.
Transitional housing is vital to achieving the mission of this program, providing safe, drug and alcohol-free shelter, aftercare counseling and support groups, a place for newly recovering individuals to practice new living skills, experience structured living, demonstrate pro-life skills, accountability, and responsibility to self, family and the community.
During the breakfast, Clark said there were about a dozen Ke Ala Hoku people sprinkled among the Lihu‘e United Church volunteers.
