“If Lion John Ochoco had not met Joanne, we would not be here tonight,” said East Kaua‘i Lions Club President Harvey Kinoshita Thursday night when the EK Lions Club packed clothes contributed by the club’s membership and cleaned and packed used eyeglasses to be shipped with the clothes to the Baguio City Lions Club in the Philippines. “There must be between 500 and 600 glasses.”
“If Lion John Ochoco had not met Joanne, we would not be here tonight,” said East Kaua‘i Lions Club President Harvey Kinoshita Thursday night when the EK Lions Club packed clothes contributed by the club’s membership and cleaned and packed used eyeglasses to be shipped with the clothes to the Baguio City Lions Club in the Philippines. “There must be between 500 and 600 glasses.”
Joanne, now Mrs. John Ochoco, still has the Lions vest from the Baguio City Lions Club, and wore it while helping Lions District 5 Past District Governors Kelvin Moniz and Roy Nishida pack the many boxes of clothes that will be shipped to people in the Philippines.
“They need this help,” said Nishida. “This is real third-world country. They just don’t have.”
Joining the effort and arriving with a bag of “big” fortune cookies, was Lion Dr. Lori Inouye-Yamashita of the Manoa Lions Club, a candidate for the District 50 Hawai‘i Lions second vice district governor, who lent her support to the effort of the EK Lions.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
