• Beach cleanups save marine life • Thank you for successful orchid sale, show • Lots of ways visitors can help cut waste • Sound adivce for hikers • Ageism offends me Beach cleanups save marine life I am not
• Beach cleanups save marine life • Thank you for successful orchid sale, show • Lots of ways visitors can help cut waste • Sound adivce for hikers • Ageism offends me
Beach cleanups save marine life
I am not sure who Mr. Sento is complaining about when he claims in the letter to the editor that beach cleanup people are just piling up litter rather than cleaning the beach.
What they are doing is getting trash out of way so that it does not get washed back in to the ocean to harm marine life. Perhaps in some areas they have an arrangement with the county to haul it away, just as the road cleanup volunteers do.
I hope that all people on this island, residents and visitors alike, take care of the ocean and the island and remove trash. Next time you see that pile Mr. Sento, please feel free to take some or all of it to the dump yourself.
Or you might help Surfrider, in their monthly beach cleanups, where we take what we gather to the dump or to Restore Kaua‘i in Kapa‘a a for recycling of ropes, nets and buoys. Check our website to see what we have done and have scheduled for the future. www.kauai.surfrider.org
Carl Berg, Lihue
Thank you for successful orchid sale, show
We would like to thank everyone who made our 21st annual Mothers Day Orchid Show and Sale so successful.
The contributions from Growing Greens, Kaua‘i Nursery and Landscaping, Kaua‘i Orchids, Kukui Grove Shopping Center, Orchid Alley, Pho Kaua‘i, Sam Lee, Starbucks, and Yamada Nursery are gratefully acknowledged.
We would also like to thank the judges from the American Orchid Society – Ann Reid (Kauai‘), Tom Godbey (Kaua‘i), Michael Blietz (Maui) and Maryetta Sciuto (Maui) — for their hard work and very high standards. A big mahalo to them all.
Gary Henderson, Kilauea
Lots of ways visitors can help cut waste
A few suggestions to add to my recent letter (May 5) that focused on using The Kaua’i Bus as opposed to renting a car.
Visitors can cut down on energy consumption by turning off the air conditioner when away from the hotel room. Hanging up towels one can re-use and recycling, when possible, is a plus.
Personally, I try to avoid eating establishments that use paper plates and plastic utensils. I avoid Styrofoam and plastic bags as well. Cutting down on paper bags that aren’t really needed is also beneficial.
I feel every little bit helps.
Beach cleanup, like at Lydgate Park on Saturday mornings, has proved to be rewarding since it benefits the Garden Isle’s environment.
Gary Saylin, Davis, Calif.
Sound advice for hikers
Congratulations to the rescuers in Koke’e State Park!
This story is perhaps a good occasion to think about what we can do to avoid being lost, or at least how to deal with it.
Speaking from personal experience as a lost person and, years later, as a member of a search and rescue team, I would offer this advice:
1. As the scouts say, “Be prepared.” Having some basics with you on all hikes will do wonders for your morale. What you should have is a hotly debated topic among rescuers and outdoors folks, but at a bare minimum one should have water, a loud whistle, at least a snack, and a hat. Having a sweater or jacket would be good, too. So would a flashlight. Very powerful ones now are small and affordable.
2. Always tell a reliable person where you’re going and when you expect to be back.
3. If lost, STAY PUT. Blow your whistle every few minutes, three blasts each time. (Rescuers look and listen for signals in groups of three.)
3. Teach your children those things. Even a small child can be taught to hug a tree and blow a whistle if lost.
Here’s to enjoying our beautiful island safely.
Russ Josephson, Kilauea
Ageism offends me
I am surprisingly offended by the TGI’s “72-year-old hiker” headline.
I get an underlying implication of 72 = old, frail, addled (i.e. age-ism + a bit of sex-ism). The headline could easily have been “Local female hiker” or “Kama‘aina …..”.
Then the story could have put fact identity down, inclusive of age, in the first line of the story as was done in the county press release. And, furthermore, when pictures of Pam were shown you had to think, “the media must have her age all wrong.”
I assure you I am not alone in my reaction. Though, as is so often the case, feelings are hard to translate to words until someone else finds the words to do so.
Frankly, I think “offended” nails it on a number of levels.
Susan Wilson, Princeville
