Koa Puna rides for keiki

PUHI — For the third year, the Koa Puna Motorcycle Club partnered with the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands Kekaha subdivision to host its Keiki Christmas for Westside kids Saturday, traveling from the Kaua‘i Harley Davidson store to the Kekaha Neighborhood Center.

“A lot of things have changed since last year,” said John Copeland, president of Koa Puna.

“We meet at the neighborhood center this year. Last year, we were at the ball park. We wanted to do a lot more — music, water slides, food and more. But the COVID-19 kept us small. The most important thing is to get the toys to the keiki.”

Koa Puna, with a roster of 25 members on this island, hosted the party with the help of the Waimea High School JROTC, whose members served as runners for the wrapped toys once a recipient drove up.

“This COVID has been really rough,” Copeland said. “We had a hard time fundraising because so many people were impacted. The important thing is we have 850 gifts that we wrapped and are ready for the Westside keiki.”

Koa Puna was joined by riders from other clubs like the Mana Souls and Paradise Savages.

“We only used to have Koa Puna riders,” Copeland said. “We can control our riders. When the other clubs asked to ride, we told them they had to control their own riders. This is a keiki event with no smoking, no drinking. It’s not as big as the one we did for Russell Haluapo last week, but for us this is the last big event for this year.”

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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.