May–June 2022

Hawai‘i Island’s Community Magazine The Life |

ARTS CULTURE SUSTAINABILITY

May – June Mei – Iune

2022

Hawaiian Hospitality with Hiloʼs Songbird Christy Lassiter Hank Fergerstromʼs Indomitable Spirit Hope for Honu: Green Sea Turtles on the Road to Recovery

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KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

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KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

The Life Hawaiÿi Island’s Community Magazine May – June | Mei – Iune 2022

Arts Suzanne Wang: Ceramics Comes Full Circle 40

By Ma‘ata Tukuafu

Hawaiian Hospitality with Hilo’s Songbird Christy Lassiter

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By Nancy Kahalewai

Community Battered by Life, the Rescued Livestock at FPG Have Found Sanctuary

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Morinoue’s Hale: A Gathering Place

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By Stefan Verbano

By Emily Gleason

Sonny’s Healing Journey Began with Music 34

By Carole Gariepy

Culture Birthplace of the Boogie Board: Wai‘aha Beach, Kona

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Hank Fergerstrom’s Indomitable Spirit

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By Fern Gavelek

Sustainability Mālama Mokupuni Hope for Honu: Green Sea Turtles on the Road to Recovery

By Rachel Laderman with Irene Kelly

Front cover: Kua Closeup, a photograph by Don Hurzeler.

Table of contents: Roll Me Over, a photograph by Kirk Shorte.

Read more about the photographers on page 53.

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KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

By Ana Kahoopii and Tanya Yamanaka

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The Life

Hawaiÿi Island’s Community Magazine May – June | Mei – Iune 2022

Ka Wehena: The Opening Wai‘aha

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By Kumu Keala Ching

Medicinal Plants from the Garden The Comfort of Comfrey

By Brittany P. Anderson

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Business Talk Story with an Advertiser

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Island Treasures

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Rock Star Pet Supplies

Injeyan Fine Woodworking

Local Food The Secret Life of Pears Recipe for Poached Pears

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By Brittany P. Anderson

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

Featured Artists

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Featured Cover Artist

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Table of Contents Artist

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Don Hurzeler Kirk Shorte

Ka Puana: Closing Thoughts 620: He ‘ike ‘ana ia i ka pono

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Mary Kawena Pukui. Olelo Noeau: Hawaiian Proverbs and Poetical Sayings Annual subscriptions to Ke Ola Magazine available at: KeOlaMagazine.com/subscribe $45 for six issues, delivered First Class mail anywhere in Hawai‘i and the United States.

We’re introducing a new series starting with this issue on medicinal plants that can be grown here on the island, along with how to prepare them for use. Our longtime “local food” writer, Brittany Anderson, is writing this series, using her own experience. We are proponents of natural medicine, and we are excited to share this with our readers!

There are many other touching stories in this issue—we are certain you will enjoy each and every one of them. It is our pleasure and kuleana to publish Ke Ola Magazine. We continue to be grateful for all our supporters, longtime and new. Please remember to call or visit our advertisers and mention where you saw their ad—it is their mālama (care) that keeps Ke Ola alive.

Mahalo nui loa, Barbara Garcia and Tanya Yamanaka

You would have loved to be on the phone when Donnie called! “I’m famous! I’m famous!” Her daughter-in-law picked up some copies of Ke Ola which she uses to teach her reading class. She said the kids aren’t interested in Dick and Jane type books but will gladly read your magazine about things they know and love. She opened one and saw Donnie’s photo.

When she told the class about her relation to the story they said Dana was famous. She even heard one of the kids telling another teacher how famous Dana was because her Tutu was in your magazine. So, Dana came home saying “you’re famous,” to Donnie. That’s probably when she started to giggle and she was still giggling when she called me to say “I’m famous. I’m famous.”

The story in your wonderful magazine is one of the precious memories she will always cherish. Thank you for that. I really appreciate your professionalism, but your kindness and generosity will be what I remember.

Leslee Engler, writer, Donnieʻs Thansgiving, March-April 2022 via email

Corrections For our Ka Puana (Closing Thoughts) photo in the March-April 2022 issue, we inadvertantly stated photographer Beau Jack Imua Keyʻs last name incorrectly. We apologize for this error.

Ke Ola Magazine recognizes the use of the ‘okina [‘] or glottal stop, as one of the eight consonants of (modern) Hawaiian language; and the kahakō [ā] or macron (e.g., in place names of Hawai‘i such as Pāhoa). Ke Ola Magazine respects the individual use of these markings for names of organizations and businesses.

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We love getting your letters to the editor of 50 words or fewer. Story ideas and submissions are also welcome. We accept email and submissions through our website.

KeOlaMagazine.com HIeditor@KeOlaMagazine.com keolamagazine.com/suggest-story-idea/ keolamagazine.com/write-letter-to-the-editor/

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We always notice the magic and synchronicities—we’ve mentioned it many times in these letters. We were working with Don Hurzeler to get permission from the boogieboarder in the image we chose for the cover, and also had asked permission to feature a second photo of Don’s for the opening of our first story. He had shot those photos months apart, and didn’t know who either of the athletes were, so he put the word out on social media. After a few days, he reached one of them and lo and behold, it turned out they were brother and sister! We are tickled to be featuring both Makana and Ke‘alohi Wang in this issue to illustrate Fern Gavelek’s story about the birthplace of boogieboarding, right here at Wai‘aha Bay in Kailua Kona, also known as Honl’s.

We know you will find all of our stories inspiring, however, we want to give special acknowledgment to Sonny Ramos and his family, and to writer Carole Gariepy for bringing Sonny to our attention.

Sonny is a native of Hawai‘i Island and one of many Vietnam veterans living here. Even though Veterans Day isnʻt until November, we wanted to honor Sonny as soon as possible for the service he and all other veterans have provided to our country. We empathize with Lemongrass growing in Tanya’s raised bed garden. what they went through and are grateful they are finding help and being acknowleded all these years later. Sonny has found peace through playing music. May all veterans find peace in whatever makes them happiest, and thank you all for your service.

In Hank Fergerstrom’s first interview with Ke Ola writers, he reminds us of Māmalahoe Kānāwai (Law of the Splintered Paddle): Article 9, Section 10 of the Hawai‘i State Constitution, which protects the vulnerable during times of conflict. This is an excellent reminder that all people are created equal and deserve fair treatment, regardless of their social status, beliefs, values, lifestyle choices, or anything else. After all, this is the true meaning of aloha.

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Wai‘aha

Na Kumu Keala Ching

Kū Wai‘aha uka o Honua‘ula Lālau ka ‘Ōpua, Poli Hualālai La‘i maila ka ua, Ua ola Kona ‘Ike malu Luawai, La‘a Kālua ua Ala Pua‘a, Wai‘aha i Kahului I ka lae Pa‘akai, One o Wai‘aha A he laumakani ka ‘āina kamaha‘o Ha‘o ka pilina o nā lua laha ‘ole

Majestic Wai‘aha upon Honua‘ula Surround ‘Ōpua of Hualālai Calm is the rain, Living rain of Kona Source of Luawai, sacred Kālua ua Ahupua‘a o Pua‘a, Wai‘aha, Kahului At Pa‘akai point, Until Wai‘aha Honored wind of a wonderful land Surprised relationship of two sources

Hanohano Wai‘aha i ke kula la Lu‘ulu‘u ka ua pulu i ka ‘āina Na kekele uka, Na kekele kai Kahi kama‘āina, ola kō ke kai ē

Famous Wai‘aha shoreline dwellers Drenched by the rain upon the land Foundational source of Wai‘aha Child of the land, life of the sea

Eia Wai‘aha, Wai poli lua la Lālau ka ‘Ōpua, Poli Hualālai La‘i maila ka ua, Ua ola Kona ‘Ike malu Luawai, La‘a Kālua ua

Here Wai‘aha, two water source Surround ‘Ōpua of Hualālai Calm is the rain, Living rain of Kona Source of Luawai, sacred Kālua ua

Ma kahi ahupua‘a o Wai‘aha, ola mau nā ua o ka ‘āina ā ‘ike mau ka nele o ka ua ma ka ‘āina o Kona.

‘O Kālua Ua kahi hale Akua i ho‘omana nā kānaka i ka ua ma Kona ā aia kēia hale Akua ma Wai‘aha. ‘O Wai‘aha kahi hui ‘ia nā wai o ka ‘āina ‘o ia ho‘i nā ‘ike o ka wai ā nā ‘ike kai kekahi. He ola iā Wai‘aha!

Upon the beach of Wai‘aha, a relationship was (and still is) created between families, friends, and communities as noted within the second and third verses. Allow Wai‘aha to be this gathering place of waters (shared knowledge). Mahalo Tom Morey and Rex Honl!

For more information on Kumu Keala and Nä Wai Iwi Ola, visit: nawaiiwiola.org Painting of Wai ÿaha courtesy of Ginger Sandell

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

At the land district of Wai‘aha, the rain nurtures the land and it is seen of the lost or lack of rain upon the land of Kona. Kālua Ua heiau is where prayers to the rain of Kona were conducted and Kālua Ua was located in Wai‘aha. Wai‘aha is the gathering place of the water, the knowledgeable source of the two water sources. Wai‘aha is alive!

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velek

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

By Fern Ga

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small beach located just on the outskirts of Historic Kailua Village is officially the birthplace of the boogie board.

Known by the local water sports community for decades, the designation was recently declared by state and county proclamation. Popularly called Honl’s, for the family that once lived there, its actual name is Wai‘aha Bay Beach Park.

The unassuming spot is nestled just south of the Kona Reef condominiums on Ali‘i Drive, in Kailua Kona.

A new, two-sided historic marker shares the story of how the boogie board came to be on this unassuming strip of white sand beach. The flip side details how ancient Hawaiians rode waves on their bellies using a wooden paipo board. The

Keÿalohi Wang charging hard on her boogie board along the Kona coast. photo courtesy of Don Hurzeler

Waipiÿo Epic, photo courtesy of CJ Kale

three weeks prior, at age 86. Bodyboard champion Mike Stewart led the traditional waterman’s memorial ceremony at the county park. Kumu Keala Ching did a chant acknowledging the connection of Wai‘aha to the past, present, and future.

“It was a gathering of about 150 bodyboarders extending through generations,” recalls Rep. Villegas, who grew up an

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

marker was unveiled on November 6, 2021, also known as International Bodyboarding Day, during the 50th anniversary year of the invention of the boogie board.

Sponsored by Hawai‘i County Councilwoman Rebecca Villegas, the event included a paddle-out in honor of boogie board/bodyboard inventor Tom Morey, who passed away

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In addition to a keiki waveriding competition, the Roots Bodyboarding Contest includes fun photo courtesy of Ivory Ah Nee

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

avid bodyboarder. “Mike Stewart also organized simultaneous paddle-outs at different sites around the world.”

One of the paddle-out participants was Kailua-Kona’s Rex Honl, along with his grandchildren. He was 11 years old the day Tom Morey invented the boogie board on the beach bearing his family’s name and remembers it well.

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The Invention of the Boogie Board It was July 7, 1971 when Tom Morey, a surfer and engineer, fashioned the first-ever boogie board while living in a house that once stood on Honl’s Beach. In his garage, he took a nine-foot piece of polyethylene foam and cut it in half using his wife Marchia’s electric carving knife. The result was a torsosized plank. According to the historic marker, he then “outlined a short board with a square tail, no fins, and squared-off nose that could be gripped for easier control and handling while riding waves in the prone position. To finish shaping his prototype, Tom laid down a copy of The Honolulu Advertiser on the foam and applied a hot clothes iron to smooth it and make the board somewhat watertight.”

Tom tried out his new board that day at Wai‘aha. He found he could feel the wave under his body, saying, “I thought this is nice, this is special—and maybe it could be something important.” The historic marker reads Tom “deliberately chose

games and prizes awarded for correctly answering history and Hawaiian language questions.

Boogie Board Creates Sport for All Ages After moving to Carlsbad, California, Tom developed howto kits so people could assemble their boogie board at home.

According to the California Surf Museum website, the $25 kit included the handwritten and illustrated booklet “How to Skin Your Boogie” and two pieces of foam that had to be glued together to form the board’s “skins.” Tom persuaded Surfer magazine to place an ad on credit and the orders flooded in.

“Tom thought people would enjoy assembling their own board—kind of like an organic experience,” explains surf museum docent and former Kona resident Tom Dahnke. “Little did he know people would start coming back and asking Tom to assemble their boards…there were many misshaped ones.”

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

the name ‘boogie’ to describe his board, based on his love of jazz music.”

After Tom took out his invention, he invited Rex to give it a try.

“I rode it right over the shallow areas,” Rex remembers. “It was lightweight, fun, and felt really good. Little did we know Tom’s invention would change the life of so many.” Rex adds, “you can be a little kid or a grandparent” and ride waves with a boogie board. “Tom built it for fun, so all could enjoy the waves, even the average, everyday person.”

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Krista Donaldson and Mike Denney collaborated with Current Events to create a boogie board-shaped historical marker for Waiÿaha, also known as Honl’s. The Kailua Kona beach has been officially proclaimed as the birthplace of the boogie board and modern bodyboarding. photo by Fern Gavelek

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In 1975, Tom started manufacturing completed boards and his first big production was the hand-shaped 132BE. Toy company Kransco purchased the Morey Boogie in 1979 and soon it was in stores nationwide. It was bought by Mattel and then Wham-O, and by the 1980s, bodyboarding was a worldwide sensation. Today, there are numerous manufacturers of bodyboards, but they are still commonly referred to by Tom’s moniker, “boogie boards,” a word Merriam Webster defines as “a poor man’s surfboard, used for body surfing.”

Waiÿaha Beach Park, also known as Honl’s, is just south of Historic Kailua Village. photo by Fern Gavelek

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Finding a Way to Commemorate the Story Before the birth of the boogie board, Washington, DC native Mike Denney grew up bodyboarding on inflatable canvas surf mats in Ocean City, Maryland. As an adult he continued his love of wave riding on boogies in Portland, Maine. It was during a 2019 Hawai‘i Island vacation that Mike learned the beach across from his condo was the birthplace of the boogie board—and he thought it odd there wasn’t signage saying so.

“I think that fact is important to surf history and to Kona,” emphasizes Mike. “I felt the story needed to be told.”

Mike reached out to Krista Donaldson, who in 2004 collaborated with a handful of Wai‘aha’s passionate, lifelong bodyboarders to create a contest to educate about Wai‘aha and perpetuate the sport of bodyboarding. Krista and Mike met in December 2020 and agreed on the need for a twosided marker—one side would share about the boogie board while the other covered the Hawaiian paipo board. Krista also pledged the help of Malama Wai‘aha volunteers to help install the sign once it was ready.

Mike researched the history of the boogie board and was able to interview Tom Morey several times thanks to a contact at the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center in San Clemente, California. With Tom’s blessing and approval, Mike prepared the copy detailing the birth of the boogie board at Wai‘aha Beach and Tom’s wife furnished a photo of Tom with his first prototype board.

To provide narrative on the ancient Hawaiian paipo board, Mike relied on information found in Krista’s book, Malama Wai‘aha. He also talked to John NK Clark, leading Hawai‘i surf historian, and Marques Marzan, cultural advisor at Bishop Museum, to get a photo of a paipo board, reportedly dating from the 1600s and discovered in 1905 in the Ho‘okena burial cave of High Chiefess Kaneamuna.

Armed with the written and visual materials needed for the marker, Mike visited Ross Wilson at Current Events, a

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because we need to tell the stories of the places here in our Kona District,” explains Ross. “Helping was the right thing to do and we’re thankful Mike Denney is around reminding us to do these things.”

Current Events donated the services to design the sign and help Mike procure a manufacturer.

Abel Aquino of Kona did the design work and came up with the idea for the marker to be shaped like a boogie board. Mike paid to have the sign manufactured. Malama Wai‘aha volunteers installed the marker on the northeast end of the beach; it’s simply circled by a row of rocks and small plants. To those approaching from the street, the sign reads, “The Boogie Board was Designed and Created by Tom Morey on This Site in 1971.”

Tom Morey, circa 1971, with his prototype boogie board. photo courtesy of Marchia Morey

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Kona public relations firm that’s been involved with creating historical signage around the island, including those seen throughout Historic Kailua Village.

“Mike came in with the idea and I said we could help

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Perpetuating Wai‘aha’s Boogie Board Legacy Krista Donaldson—a Kona charter school garden teacher, surf enthusiast, author, and self-described history buff—helped create the keiki surf contest at Wai‘aha after getting to know some of the beach’s hardest charging bodyboarders.

“Wai‘aha is the perfect place for bodyboarding and I thought

Signs share info on the beach’s re-introduced native shoreline plants, which were cultivated

by Malama Waiÿaha volunteers through a County Friends of the Park agreement. photo by Fern Gavelek

we could have a contest while getting kids engaged with the history and culture of the place,” she recalls. “Kids had to clean up the beach for their entry fee.”

Billed as “Kona’s only and oldest bodyboarding contest at the birth beach of our sport—Wai‘aha,” the Roots Bodyboarding Contest is held annually in June. Besides competing on the waves, keiki (children) vie in fun games like the Bodyboard Limbo. They also win prizes for correctly answering questions like: What is an ahupua‘a? (land parcel from mountain to ocean). Or, what does Wai‘aha mean? (gathering water).

Locally grown food is enjoyed by participants and the beach gets spruced up by the keiki.

Overseeing the contest are Malama Wai‘aha volunteers, who pitch in for beach cleanups, usually the first Sunday of each month. Through a County Friends of the Park agreement and an approved native planting plan, Krista and volunteers have also re-introduced native shoreline plants and colorful, handpainted signs around the park. Plants are identified by their Hawaiian names as Krista “feels strongly we should reference people, things, and places by their Hawaiian names.”

Plans are in the works for the 2022 Roots Bodyboarding Contest in early June. Details for the 18th annual contest are available at Miller’s Surf in Kona, and event posters will be up on the beach.  For more information: kristajoan@gmail.com

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By Stefan Verbano

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

ve the sheep lived an action-packed life before coming to the sanctuary. She spent her early years frolicking through green pastures of her lower Puna homestead, until her peaceful existence was shattered in 2018 by the massive volcanic eruption. Suddenly, she found herself living on the run while the earth shook, lava bombs exploded, and half the sky glowed red at night.

Then there was the fateful moment when a helicopter appeared from over the smoky horizon, loaded her into its dangling harness, and flew her—flailing, terrified, and exhausted—out of the lava zone and into the caring hands of the Hawai‘i Lava Flow Animal Rescue Network. Without a

doubt they saved her life.

Then came the livestock trailer, the veterinarian, and the staging area full of other farm animals saved during the same mission.

Eve made friends with three other helicopterrescued sheep, two of which were so badly burned on their backs from the eruption’s falling hot ash that, sadly, they didn’t survive.

All four were brought, with little advance notice, to the Fellowship for Perpetual Growth (FPG)—a 20-acre teaching farm and animal sanctuary built on old sugarcane land in the rolling hills above Mountain View on Kīlauea Volcano’s eastern flank. Here, in grassy fields dotted by stands of strawberry guava and bordered by young forests of ‘ōhi‘a trees, Eve and the other survivor, Caleb, a ram, lazily graze away their days, nap in the cool shade of the fenced pasture’s solitary coconut palm, and socialize with the throngs of other rehabilitated farm animals wandering the property—from pigs and chickens to donkeys, turkeys, ducks, and goats.

“Eve and Caleb didn’t have any burns on them,” sanctuary co-founder Rob Cole says about their arrival.

“They were the healthier two sheep out of the four. Eve was really skittish at first, and Caleb was too, to a lesser extent. They were both very scared, untrusting. They wouldn’t even come near you.”

Although Eve and Caleb seemed to have fared well physically, they were clearly emotionally traumatized from the whole ordeal, and Rob had to start from square one in helping them feel safe around humans again.

“The first couple of weeks I’d just lay food down in their trough and walk away,” Rob recalls. “They’d come over to investigate—always Caleb first, and then if he was alright, the other sheep would follow him and stick together. Just by giving them food regularly, that won their trust.”

Now, nearly four years later, both sheep have made

18 A stranded cow in Kapoho being airlifted courtesy of Cal Dorn’s Paradise Helicopters. The company helped rescue hundreds of farm animals during the 2018 Lower Puna Eruption. photo courtesy of Bruce Omori, Extreme Exposure Photography

tremendous progress toward getting back to their happy, carefree selves.

“Now I’m able to get close enough to Eve to put a leash on her,” Rob says. “Once I’m in her presence, I’m able to rub her nose and ears. She loves the face rubs.”

Eve can still get nervous around strangers, though, while Caleb has recovered to the point that he’s friendly and inquisitive, even nosy.

The Rest of the ‘Ohana The majority of the sanctuary’s livestock residents, numbering between 50 and 60, not including the birds, are lava flow evacuees like Eve and Caleb. Others were rescued from defunct commercial farms, such as the retired milk cows Maria and Olena. They are beautiful Holsteins, patterned with the iconic black-spots-on-white, and arrived at the sanctuary in 2019 when Big Island Dairy, Hawai‘i’s last commercial dairy operation, was forced to shut down due to improper waste management. Most of its herd of more than 2,800 milk cows were set to be slaughtered, and that’s when the Animal Rescue Network—a volunteer organization of Hawai‘i Island animal lovers that began as a humble Facebook group—ramped up once again and came to their rescue.

Other animals came from abusive farms, like two of the sanctuary’s donkeys: Eddie and Flo. They were originally from a hobby ranch along the Hāmākua Coast, and their former owners put them up for adoption in order to concentrate

James Myers, the sanctuary’s primary animal caretaker, breaks up clumps of hay into the feed trough of the retired milk cows Maria and Olena, while Olena’s baby Kaukani comes over and shyly sneaks bites. The two were rescued from a massive herd at the now-defunct Big Island Dairy, Hawaiÿi’s last commercial dairy operation, when it shut down in 2019. photo by Stefan Verbano

on their horses. Flo and Eddie’s previous “farrier,” a type of livestock craftsperson specializing in trimming hoofs, had physically abused them with his tools, and so were implacable when the sanctuary’s newfound farrier came to care for them.

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

Sanctuary co-founder Rob Cole feeding Eve out of his hand after years of earning her trust. photo by Stefan Verbano

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Hokulani was born on the evening before the full moon in May 2019. Her mother had developed mastitis and a blocked udder. As a result, FPG caregivers nursed her every hour for the first day with goat colostrum. The next day and for the next several months, they purchased goat milk from a local farmer to nurse her until she was weaned. photo courtesy of FPG Sanctuary

“Our guy came down, and the first time meeting the donkeys they shook,” Rob says. “They trembled when he touched his tools. The donkeys told us they had been abused by the other farrier, there’s no question, no doubt in my mind based on the way they reacted.”

Progress was slow. The new farrier worked very gently and mindfully, and earned their faith with handfuls of alfalfa cubes.

He’d come every six weeks, and during the first session the

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

James Myers lays down buckets of table scraps for free-roaming pigs in a grassy field separating the paddocks. photo by Stefan Verbano

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donkeys would only give up one or two hoofs to be trimmed.

“He’d win their trust more and more, and within four sessions he was able to trim every hoof,” Rob remembers. “It was just amazing to see how these animals can learn to trust us again after people have shown them that there are some of us who can’t be trusted. They’re still willing to have hope for us that there are good people out there willing to take care of them.”

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James Myers brushes the female donkeys­—known as “jennies”—in their paddock after laying out their morning meal. Feeding them, he says, is his favorite part of the sanctuary’s twice-daily chores. photo by Stefan Verbano

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Enter James It’s 9am and James Myers pulls the breakfast wagon down the bumpy gravel driveway. The animals, most of them grouped into their respective paddocks, see him coming and start their excited chatter. In the wagon there’s hay for the cows, grain for the donkeys, table scraps for the pigs, and feed for the birds, all in plastic bins and old metal stock pots stacked up to a precarious height.

James has been the primary animal caretaker at the sanctuary since October 2021, and before that he was one of its many volunteers. Tragedy had struck again when another founding member, Ken, passed away, leaving Rob to continue the vision alone. After applying for and landing the job, James moved into Ken’s vacant yurt, graduating from casual volunteer to land-partner.

“I think animals are naturally attracted to me,” James says.

“They always want to be around me. Living here feels very resonant with who I am—this place is so wide and spread out, the sky is open and the land is beautiful.”

Feeding the donkeys is James’ favorite part of the twice-daily chores.

“They make it so easy to love them,” he says.

“They just have so much personality, it makes it really enjoyable to be around them.”

James finishes his rounds and gets ready for the volunteers to arrive. The sanctuary hosts work days once a month when community members can come and contribute. The influx of new faces makes Eve more skittish than normal, and she shies away from the food trough as Caleb happily chomps away. Rob comes into the pasture and squats down with a handful of feed in his outstretched arm. Her Left to Right: Sanctuary co-founder Rob Cole, volunteer Nikki Stephens, and primary animal caretaker James Myers clear ground to make space eyes light up, and she for vegetable gardens at the organization’s 20-acre property in Mountain View during one of its monthly volunteer days. photo by Stefan Verbano nervously takes two steps forward and one step back. Slowly she inches closer as Rob gently calls her these animals,” Rob says. “A lot of people could rescue, you name. Next her muzzle is buried in his palm, her anxiety is know, foster dogs and cats in their home, that’s not a problem. quelled, and his other hand sneaks up to rub her head.

But there were a lot of farm animals that needed help, too, so This is a snapshot of the sanctuary’s greatest aspiration: to we cobbled together some fencing and makeshift shelters and take in a farm animal like Eve, who’s been battered by life, we took in as many animals as we could house as quickly as made to live in fear and traumatized by a harrowing ordeal, we could.” and over the months and years help her heal and muster the The scene was hectic. Sanctuary staff and community courage to eat out of a cupped hand. The work is hard and volunteers worked long days with few resources, slapping their progress is sometimes slow, but to see her in moments together old shipping pallets and lengths of cast-off corrugated like this makes it all worth it.  metal roofing. Even today the haphazard nature of the original livestock structures can still be seen in their sagging roofs and For more information: fpgsanctuary.org walls that are clearly not square, although the animals don’t seem to mind.

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FPG’s Start The Fellowship for Perpetual Growth was founded as a community-focused nonprofit in 2016 by Rob and two friends: Sonja, an animal lover, and Ken, a permaculturist. Rob rounded out the group with his past experience as an IT specialist and computer program manager, transferring his organizational skills and eye for efficiency from technological systems to agricultural systems.

Tragically, Sonja passed away in 2016 after the land was purchased but before boots were on the ground. The next year was spent surveying and gathering data about rain and wind patterns, as well as sun exposure and soil drainage.

They started earth-moving in the beginning of 2018, and just a few months later volcanic fissures began to explode in Leilani Estates. In that moment, besides its two large yurts and shipping container barn, the sanctuary had little infrastructure set up for animals.

“Since we’re a nonprofit, our duty is to the community, and what the community needed in that moment was to rescue

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Medicinal Plants from the Garden

By Brittany P. Anderson

The Comfort of Comfrey

Green lance-shaped leaves fall over themselves in compact clusters, with a fuzz about them like a clump of rabbit ears waiting to be pet. The leaves are coarse to the touch, while purple bell flowers dangle over the grouping giving a soft whimsy as if fairies call the place home. Comfrey is a perennial herb cultivated since about 400 BC for its healing properties.

Comfrey in the garden. photo by Brittany P. Anderson It’s not only a potent medicinal plant for the body; it can also be used as a rich soil amendment.

The word comfrey comes from Latinnames confirma, meaning the uniting of bones and confervere, grow together.

Comfrey was an appropriate name for such a plant used from ancient Greece and throughout history for healing broken bones and wounds. The famous Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder details his experimentation with comfrey, noting that the water from boiled comfrey roots creates a sticky paste that can glue skin lacerations back together.

By the 1500s, comfrey was used to treat everything from wounds to respiratory illnesses, hemorrhoids to gangrene as a poultice, tea, or syrup. Comfrey leaves were added to stews and strong broths to heal internal diseases. It is only recently that comfrey’s medicinal qualities have come into question, and like all medicines, should be used with caution.

Allantoin, which aids in cell formation, is the chemical compound that gives comfrey its healing abilities. Extracted or synthetic allantoin is added to modern-day lotions, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals, but the plant itself has fallen out of favor by today’s contemporary medicine community.

Permaculture enthusiasts, however, know that comfrey is the bedrock to a healthy garden. Comfrey is highly adaptable to soil conditions and does best in full sun. Because of the deep root system, comfrey leaves do not easily wilt and tolerate drought conditions.

There are three notable comfrey species from the genus Symphytum. Common or wild comfrey, Symphytum officinale, native to England and favored medicinal variety, hence the “official” in its name. The most common type of

comfrey found in North America is Quaker comfrey, a natural hybrid from Symphytum officinale, and prickly comfrey Symphytum asperum Lepechin. Quaker comfrey was imported in 1954 into Canada as a forage for animals, and most of the comfrey grown throughout the United States can be traced back to these cuttings.

Comfrey is rarely cultivated by seed; instead, it is propagated from root cuttings, divisions, and transplanting. A mound of comfrey can be divided several times quite easily, and the transplanted sections establish quickly when root cuttings are larger. As a perennial, the lifespan of one plant can easily be 20 years.

In the garden space, comfrey is notoriously pest resistant.

Borders of comfrey ward off pests while their roots break up hard soils, making it easier for their neighboring plants.

Another common practice in permaculture is to cut comfrey back and use the leaves as a green compost. Compared to animal manures, comfrey has much less nutrient value, but it is more bioavailable for the plants and avoids crosscontamination of produce. Permaculture enthusiasts love comfrey as an all-natural NPK fertilizer, a great alternative to chemicals for the home or organic gardener.

Comfrey tea is made by steeping leaves in water for a few weeks and then used as a foliar spray to Comfrey flowers in bloom. photo by Brittany P. Anderson ward off pests.

The tea smells terrible, but simply strain the liquid and use it in a 1:10 ratio for spraying.

When flowering, a leafed stalk springs up from the mound of leaves. Small bell-like flowers hang in little groupings attracting pollinators. Flowers come in different colors depending on the species. Symphytum officinale is commonly called the “comfrey with the white flowers” in texts throughout history due to its creamy white flowers. The most common comfrey flower color is an attractive pinkish purple.

Growing comfrey in the home garden on Hawai‘i Island is as practical as it is versatile. Creating a brew from comfrey leaves increases soil health and protects plants from nibbling pests.

Best of all, comfreyʻs medicinal heritage is appreciated by herbalists for its potent cell regenerating properties.

Was that a fairy or a butterfly that just stopped by the comfrey? Perhaps it was just the ocean breeze rustling the amethyst-colored bells of the comfrey.

By Ana Kahoopii and Tanya Yamanaka

nko Hank sits at an empty picnic table near the King Kamehameha statue on Hilo’s bayfront, the sun shining on this Valentine’s Day morn. The gold bodice of Kamehameha glitters behind him; the King’s outstretched arms seemingly mimic the feeling Hank beckons to us: Come! Come and listen.

Hawai‘i was a territory of the United States when Hanalei “Hank” Fergerstrom was born in 1949, near the birthplace of Kamehameha at North Kohala Hospital. His mother, Charmine, and father, Harry, divorced after his younger brother Samuel was born. His mother remarried twice, moving to California and O‘ahu. Raised in a military atmosphere, Hank was sent from Pearl Harbor military base to Hawai‘i Island at age 12 to have his father “straighten him out.”

Hank’s first court

The many faces of Hank Fergerstrom. photos courtesy of Tanya Yamanaka

appearance was when he was only 11 years old. He and his brothers had gotten in trouble on a military base, playing in an off-limits warehouse. The judge interrogated the boys to ensure they knew what they had done wrong. His mother had instructed them to answer respectfully and apologize. Still, when the judge came to him, Hank responded that he had a deal to deliver newspapers in exchange for the rights to play in the Pearl Harbor warehouse. Even then, Hank’s penchant for truth was a guiding force that led to more punishment, sometimes more severe than if he had said nothing at all.

Law of the Splintered Paddle Hank’s early years didn’t break his spirit; they emboldened him. His many years in and out of the justice system gave him legal experience and know-how that couldn’t be learned through books or school.

During those years, Hank’s guiding principle was Māmalahoe Kānāwai (The Law of the Splintered Paddle).

The law was enacted in 1797 before Kamehameha unified the Hawaiian Islands and remains the law today, as Article 9, Section 10 of the Hawai‘i State Constitution.

Māmalahoe Kānāwai protects the vulnerable during times of conflict. This would apply to his personal life, as well as being a single parent of a disabled

Hank (second from right) participates in ceremony, welcoming His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Honolulu in 1994. photo courtesy of Hank Fergerstrom the Hawaiian Homeland’s Mauna Kea access road from July, 2019, until the moratorium in December, 2019.

Perfect Timing for Pu‘uhonua The late morning sun becomes overcast with shadows as Hank begins to talk about his healing journey. He speaks with great tenderness recalling the loss of his only child in 2017 and his recent diagnosis of lung cancer in 2021. Cancer hasn’t slowed Hank down in the least. His mind is as sharp as ever; his enthusiasm to explore healing modalities and to find meaning from this experience dominated his consciousness. While working with traditional medical treatment, Hank also studied alternative therapies and was treated by some profoundly gifted local healers and practitioners. Although the cancer in Hank’s lung has grown in size, he is feeling

Hank attending commemoration of the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom at ÿIolani Palace. photo courtesy of Hank Fergerstrom

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

child. Hank’s son, Michael Keali‘i lawe mai iao eloko i kapo (the king who brings light into darkness) was born on August 26, 1979. Hank credits his son with keeping him focused on his kuleana (responsibility).

Hank’s adherence to Māmalahoe Kānāwai led him to become an early member of Na Koa. “Na Koa O Pu‘ukohola are the warriors from the mound of the whale [at the heiau in North Kohala]. The restoration of Na Koa was the first time in 200 years the warriors of Kamehameha the Great had assembled,” says Hank. The Na Koa warriors were a perfect fit for Hank with their guiding principles of protecting the land, resources, and people. Hank took the kuleana to serve and protect seriously. It is Hank’s commitment to this kuleana that shaped his decades of activism.

Hank is best known for his annual vigils held at ‘Iolani Palace. Conducted on the palace grounds since 2000, these four-day vigils held at the Hawaiian nation’s power center commemorate two critical historical events: Lā ho‘iho‘i Ea (Sovereignty Restoration Day) in July, and the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom on January 16. Hank offers an open invitation to come and join him, saying to the crowd in front of the palace, “There is no question that the need for true unity is of the utmost importance, especially with all the hewa [wrongs] surrounding us—Mauna Kea, Haleakalā, Ho‘opili, Kualoa, Pōhakuloa, rail, military build-up. We have to put our heads together and bring all of these things to a head by chopping the legs they stand on. No annexation. No treaty. No land deeds. No kuleana. Let’s explore the many ways we can prepare to act in unison and how each island can support the others. This is the time!” The vigils are an opportunity for the community to attend workshops, share mana‘o (ideas), and raise awareness. When Hank isn’t preparing for the Palace vigils, he is intensely involved in protecting Mauna Kea. Hank was first introduced to the beauty of Mauna Kea by his father, who was a rancher in the area. Later he would become a practitioner of the Temple of Lono, leading him to spend days and sometimes weeks in solitude on the mauna.

He was one of many kūpuna (elders) assembled on

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Rev. M. Kalani Souza and Hank talk story about a variety of issues facing Hawaiÿi, Hawaiians and humans in their video series Unko Hank Question Everything. photo courtesy of Julie Stowell

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

better than he has in many years. This is due to the support of many friends that have made the exploration of alternative treatment possible.

Hank’s indomitable spirit pushes him to find the light of a situation. The gift of his grief at losing his son and his illness was the vision Hank received in 2021 of a healing pu‘uhonua, a sanctuary, a place imbued with mystical power, a place of forgiveness. Hank’s vision showed him a healing pu‘uhonua that was not a select place or building, but the entire moku (island). Hank says, “We probably have more healers per square foot than any other place on Earth. Our island is a place of healing, and our people, malihini [newcomers] and locals alike, are magical.”

“It is perfect timing,” Hank continues. “We had just learned our lesson regarding our dependence on tourism following the pandemic. We also had the unexpected gift of witnessing the

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ocean, the forests, and wildlife benefit from an unencumbered space. Why aren’t we utilizing the mana and magic of our island and people by becoming a pu‘uhonua for the world?

A place of healing, spiritual renewal, and restoration?” Hank asks aloud, into the sky. Hank elaborates that this restoration includes Hawai‘i Island being a place of agriculture as a part of healing the body and spirit, and that this is true hospitality.

“Aloha is the foundation of our culture. Although that word is overused it has deep meaning and significance. Living aloha is healing. On the surface, aloha denotes a simple greeting; however, it also includes the deeper aspects of our cultural values, sharing, kindness, respect, tenderness.” Hank’s voice trails off softly, as his eyes are directed toward a kōlea (Pacific golden plover) flying overhead, offering a short silence to take in the wisdom shared. As the kōlea lands in the grass beside him, Hank continues, “Many Hawaiian cultural practices such as ho‘oponopono and lomilomi are specifically geared to maintain balance and a stable sense of health and wellbeing. Rather than being an undefined tourist destination, it is time to define who we are, what we are about, and what we have to offer our global family.”

Ready for Everything When asked what he’s up to now, Hank’s eyes light up.

He taps on the computer he pulls out of his bag. “This,” he says, as he sets his iMac on the rustic picnic table. In 2021, Hank teamed up with Rev. M. Kalani Souza to present Unko Hank Question Everything, short videos of Kalani and Hank discussing long-time issues like Red Hill and newer events like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Their lively and animated conversation usually starts with a pointed observation or

Hank on Mauna Kea in 2019 with Leinaÿala Sleightholm, Dhiresha McCarver and Abby Laden at the height of demonstrations to protect the sacred. photo courtesy of Francois Waikoloa

question and aims to be thought-provoking and insightful.

Unko Hank asks us to question everything, diving deep to explore the narratives we play in our own minds. In defining who we are, individually as well as collectively, we often start with foundational assumptions that we aren’t always aware of because we’ve held them for so long. “Stay tuned, there is so much ahead. We need everyone involved to turn our moku into a pu‘uhonua. The best is yet to come. Kalani and I will be bringing it!” Hank’s enthusiasm is infectious, and he is clearly ready for whatever’s next.

The Healing Journey Continues Hank’s healing journey continues and is a testament to living with courage, passion, and authenticity. It encompasses a sense of wholeness integrated with the sacred which cycles back, and is expressed in physical healing. Hank’s medicine is a personal relationship with the gods, strengthened with culture and ceremony along with an indestructible passionate connection to the ‘āina (land). He has found his own unique way of overcoming segregation, violence, trauma, and grief and has taken his well-earned place as one of Hawai‘i’s most cherished kupuna.  For more information: http://olohana.org/index.php/uh-unkohank-question-everything/

Law of the Splintered Paddle Oh people, Honor thy god; respect alike [the rights of] people both great and humble; May everyone, from the old men and women to the children be free to go forth and lie in the road without fear of harm. Break this law, and die.

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Māmalahoe Kānāwai, 1797 E nā kānaka, E mālama ‘oukou i ke akua A e mālama ho‘i ke kanaka nui a me kanaka iki; E hele ka ‘elemakule, ka luahine, a me ke kama A moe i ke ala ‘A‘ohe mea nāna e ho‘opilikia. Hewa nō, make.

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By Emily Gleason hen you walk into Hiroki and Setsuko Morinoue’s

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

home, the first thing you’ll notice is the art. Beautiful paintings, prints, and sculptures cover the walls and all available shelf space. Their own work comingles with that of other renowned artists from around the world. As founders of Kona’s Donkey Mill Art Center, the couple have hosted countless visiting artists in their home who come to historic Hōlualoa village to teach, share, and collaborate.

The Morinoue’s home, which sits on the same property as their gallery, Studio 7 Fine Arts, are both important pieces of living history. Finished in 1923, the building was first constructed as the Japanese Community Association Hall.

It was the passion project of Dr. Harvey Saburo Hayashi and dozens of Issei volunteers (first generation Japanese immigrants) who envisioned a special place for Hōlualoa’s community to gather.

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A Very Historic Home Built using recycled wood, the one room, single story building hosted community events, martial arts classes, and maybe even theater performances—two ticket windows were discovered by the front entrance during a home renovation.

Another gem discovered in the home is a wooden plaque, covered in elegant, hand-painted Japanese characters denoting the building as “Nihonjin” (Japanese people) “Kaikan” (association place). The plaque records the date the building was completed, the names of the carpenters who worked on it, and the names of the association officials.

It was hiding in a crawl space above the ceiling, still attached to the main post of the house, untouched for more than 60 years.

The story of how the Morinoues came to call this historic building home begins with Hiroki’s grandmother, Mitsuru Mizukami, a Hōlualoa coffee farmer. She bought the building in the late 1940s, after World War Hiroki and Setsuko Morinoue at entrance to Hiroki’s family home since the 1940s. photo by Emily Gleason

II. During the war, the building had been taken over by the government and used as a library. It is a wonder that the building survived, given the times.

World War II’s Impact Following President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 in 1942, many important Japanese cultural sites were taken over or destroyed. As a historically Japanese town, Hōlualoa was targeted. Most tragically, Order 9066 resulted in the unjust incarceration of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry across the United States, with some 2,000 persons detained in Hawai‘i. Detainees from Hawai‘i were held at several different camps across the islands, including Kīlauea Military Camp here on Hawai‘i Island, and Honouliuli on O‘ahu.

Maki Morinoue, Hiroki and Setuko’s youngest of two daughters, recalled a conversation with an aunty who witnessed men from the community being detained as a child, “She remembered looking out the window, waving and smiling at familiar community faces on a bus, they were being taken somewhere. She was a kid and didn’t

understand what was going on—that it was a bad thing. She remembered her mother facing the wall, trying to hide her tears from her daughter.”

Millie Grand, granddaughter of Dr. Hayashi, remembers that the military came to detain her grandfather, but he was very sick and elderly so they did not take him. He passed away in 1943 after a long life of service.

Dr. Hayashi, the Man Behind the Building In addition to building the Japanese Community Association Hall, Dr. Hayashi was a positive force in the Hōlualoa community, including serving as its only physician (he made house calls on a horse), to starting the Kona Echo—the community’s first Japanese-English newspaper.

“He was a really hard worker,” said Millie of her grandfather, who, with her grandmother Matsui, had 12 children. “He would be out all day seeing patients and then would come home and work on the paper by kerosene lamp light.”

Millie recalls

playing in the old abandoned print shop of the Kona Echo when she was a keiki growing up in the 1940s and 50s. Her mother, Lillian Towata, wrote stories and delivered papers for the Echo as a child, later going on to write a column for West Hawaii Today for 20 years. They lived across the street from the Morinoues. Her grandfather’s house was the gray twostory building where Malama i Ka Ola Holistic Health Center is located today. (For more on Dr. Hayashi’s life story, read his biography Kona Echo, by Jiro Nakano.)

Back to the story of the Morinoues’ home and gallery: after Hiroki’s grandmother Mitsuru Mizukami purchased the old Japanese Community Association Hall in the late 1940s, the family moved

Dr. Hayashi and Matsu Hayashi. photo courtesy of Millie Grand

in, including his grandmother, mother, father, and three of six siblings. Hiroki was just three years old at the time. Soon after, the family built the Morinoue Laundry and Pool Hall on the same property, which houses Studio 7 Fine Arts Gallery today.

A Family Business Hiroki’s mother, Ayako Mizukami-Morinoue, ran the laundry.

Back then, a wash, dry, and press was only 10 cents. Ayako was also a seamstress, and always had a tape measure around her neck. Hiroki spent a lot of time in the laundry with his mom as a child, drawing on craft paper that was used to wrap

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

The original Morinoue hale, circa 1923. photo courtesy Millie Grand

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up the freshly laundered clothes. “I can still remember the smell of the kerosene,” he said, talking about the old-school gas powered washing machine.

In the pool hall, Hiroki’s father Sakuichi Morinoue was something of an inter-island legend. Story has it that he was unbeatable at a game of billiards and loved to gamble.

Men traveled from other islands to challenge him. In the 1970s, when Hiroki had art openings on O‘ahu, Maui and Kaua‘i, elderly gentlemen who had played pool with his father would recognize the Morinoue name and stop to inquire about Sakuichi and reflect on epic matches, lost.

In 1970, Hiroki Morinoue and Setsuko Watanabe married. In 1979, they turned the old pool hall and laundry into an art gallery.

Studio 7 Fine Arts is the oldest, continuously open modern art gallery in Hawai‘i. In its first two decades, the gallery promoted local emerging artists such as Chiu Leong, Wilfred Yamasawa, Nick Mitchell, Megan Mitchell, Diane This plaque, covered in hand-painted Japanese characters denoting the building as “Nihonjin” (Japanese people) “Kaikan” (association place), records the date the building was completed, the names of the carpenters and the association officials.

It was hiding in a crawl space above the ceiling, still attached to the main post of the house, untouched for over 60 years. photo by Emily Gleason

Hiroki’s mother, Ayako Morinoue-Mizukami. photo courtesy of Hiroki and Setsuko Moinoue, by photographer Megan Mitchell

Preserving Hōlualoa History Sitting at their kitchen table, Hiroki and Setsuko speak about the importance of preserving the history of the home and gallery and the history of Hōlualoa Village. Hōlualoa is home to many historic buildings that still stand and many more that have been lost—like the Kona Art Center, founded in 1967

by Hiroki and Setsuko’s mentors Bob and Carol Rodgers. The art center, housed in an old coffee mill previously owned by the Onaka family, was painted hot pink and used to be where the community parking lot is now. The Rodgers had a 1935 Sampan which the art students would cruise around in.

“That’s where I got my start,” said Hiroki. He was 19 years old when he took his first art classes at the old Kona Art Center, which inspired him to go to art school.

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Moore, Randy Takaki, Gerald Ben, Nora Yamanoha, Glenn Yamanoha, Jan Bovard, Jeera Rattanangkoon, Catherine Merrill, Moses (master paper hat maker), Clayton Amemiya, and others.

Today the gallery showcases the extensive work of Hiroki Morinoue, Setsuko Wantanabe-Morinoue, their daughter Miho Morinoue, as well as other notable Hawai‘i-based contemporary artists and master craftsmen. Their daughter Maki runs the gallery since returning to the island with her husband and child in 2016, after retiring as a modern dance choreographer in New York City. Maki’s son Kenzo is now the fifth generation living the next chapter of the story.

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This sign at the entrance of the current Studio 7 Fine Arts gallery shares with visitors that the pool hall was on one side and the laundry on the other side. photo by Emily Gleason

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

“It’s very important to save our historic buildings. The pink hotel, Paul’s Place, the old post office, the old movie theater... we should hold onto our history as long as we can,” said Millie, who remembers working at Paul’s Place scooping ice cream as a teen, serving patrons of the old movie theater.

“We don’t want to lose it,” said Setsuko of the history held in Hōlualoa’s historic buildings. “We all need to know where we are from, to know who we are, what we are going to be.”

History informs identity. Identity informs creativity. Creativity is

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Girls walking through Hölualoa, circa 1908. photo courtesy of Millie Grand

what makes the future.

In the early 2000s, the Morinoues renovated their historic home. “We gutted it and for the first few days before we put the walls up, we saw the building in its original stage, it was pretty remarkable,” said Hiroki. They recycled pieces of the original wood and saved as many of the fixtures as possible. The front doors are from the original building, as well as the home’s redwood exterior. Hiroki opened up the ceiling, getting rid of the attic crawl space and installed modern details like larger windows and, of course, a giant granite countertop that is perfect for entertaining.

Nearly a century later, their home is still serving the same purpose as it did all those years ago—a gathering place.

So, what is it like living in a piece of Hōlualoa history? “It feels good,” said Hiroki, smiling. “This building was made to be ‘the people’s place’ and you feel that energy,” added Setsuko.

“We try to keep that alive.”  For more information: studiosevenfinearts.com Exterior of the building now, on Old Mämalahoa Hwy. in Hölualoa Village. photo by Emily Gleason

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Sonny’s Healing Journey Began with Music

By Carole Gariepy

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

f you’ve stopped at Punalu‘u Bakery in Nā‘ālehu on a Thursday or Saturday, you’ve likely had the pleasure of enjoying the mellow music of Sonny Ramos. His Hawaiian and American melodies fill the air and provide an ambiance of relaxation and love. It’s music that compliments the beautiful environment the island offers.

It’s not only residents and visitors who benefit from Sonny’s music—it benefits him also, and he is grateful to Connie Koi at the bakery for inviting him to play there for the last five years.

Music gives Sonny peace, a feeling many war veterans need, especially those who went to Vietnam.

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Sonnyʻs Story Sonny was one of 13 children. They lived in the Maula Camp on the hillside above Pāhala, which was for Filipino families.

C. Brewer & Company had brought his father and many other young Filipino men to Ka‘ū to work on the sugarcane plantations.

When Sonny was 11, he moved to O‘ahu to live with his brother and attend Leilehua High School in Honolulu. It was there that his musical life began. Receiving his first ‘ukulele at 14, he taught himself how to play, and his natural musical ability blossomed. His playing has always been “by ear.”

He reminisces, “I listened to music on the radio and record player, and if I liked a song, I learned to play it.” He sang in the school choir and was selected to join the Leilehua Magical Singers, an elite group of the top sixteen singers from the choir that performed on all the islands.

O‘ahu was (and still is) surrounded by military. ROTC was

a requirement in grades 10–12 for every boy and optional for girls. Sonny was a master sergeant which entitled him to be a squad leader when he enlisted in the Army, two days after his high school graduation, in 1967. He and more than 300 other graduates from the islands enlisted. They all felt good about doing their patriotic duty.

Sonny’s first military assignment sent him to Maryland for 13 weeks of training to be an optical repairman. He learned to clean and repair binoculars, telescopes, and range finders.

He also learned to calibrate the telescopes on big guns. When his training was completed, he was sent to Vietnam. The only thing he brought from home was his ‘ukulele.

Right away he was dispatched to a Marine artillery unit at the demilitarized zone (DMZ). It was North Vietnam’s door to South Vietnam, the front line where the worst fighting was taking place. What a shock for a young high school graduate from Hawai‘i!

Sonny worked in an air conditioned dust-free section of a van, an environment that was necessary for his optical work.

The van was located in a trench along with the temporary housing shacks that were constructed with wood from ammunition boxes. They had to change locations often—the bulldozer would dig out another trench for them to set up new quarters.

Sonny was in Vietnam for a terrifying year. He liked his work, but every day was filled with shooting, seeing people wounded, seeing people killed, mortar attacks, hearing machine guns—all day long and intermittently at night. Sonny wasn’t trained as a fighting soldier, but if a red alert was sounded, which meant the enemy was near, everyone had to drop whatever they were doing, put on a flack vest and helmet, grab their weapons and defend their position. It was close-up fighting. Sonny said, “Sometimes I was so scared, my whole body would shake.”

His ‘ukulele was his source of stress relief. In the evenings he went outside to play the ‘uke and sing his soothing

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

Sonny playing at Punaluÿu Bakery in early 2022.

Inset: A vistor to the bakery gifted Sonny with this medallion. On the back it says, “Your nation proudly salutes you.”

Sonny, right, with a friend in Vietnam.

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Sonny in the living quarters in Vietnam, made from ammunition boxes.

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

Hawaiian music. Some of his buddies would sit around and listen. He said, “You’re free when you’re singing. There’s nothing else in your mind.” Another great comfort came from radio station KGMB on O‘ahu. Disc jockey Aku Head Pupuli had a music broadcast for GIs every Sunday. It meant so much to have that Hawaiian program to look forward to.

Sonny remembers some Marines had guitars and played country music. He didn’t like that music because the songs were sad but he watched them play and taught himself. Now the guitar is his main instrument.

Seeing comrades being wounded and killed, hearing artillery fire, and living in a life-threatening place for a year took a toll on the strongest of people. The war left lasting effects on Sonny, as it did on many war veterans. He developed the condition called PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder.

Sonny said he had flashbacks of being back in Vietnam. He’d

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Getta and Sonny with their two children, Robert and Nani in 1991.

feel shaky, scared, would cry like a baby, be hostile to people, and would swear at them.

He explained that an episode could be triggered by sounds, the smell of diesel fuel, shadows, bad dreams, “Every month for 12 years I’d end up in the ER from warrelated problems.”

The trauma from the war wasn’t the only thing causing Sonny’s problems.

The war trauma was magnified when he came Sonny in Vietnam. back home. Like most Vietnam veterans, he wasn’t welcomed home as a hero, as he and all veterans should be.

Vietnam had become an unpopular war, and the innocent soldiers returning home were blamed for it. War protestors met him at the airport with threatening signs and words, people threw stones at the house where he lived, they called him names, the worst was being called “baby killer.” Instead of being able to hold his head high and feel proud for serving his country, he felt ashamed, rejected, and depressed. He kept very much to himself.

Sonny and Getta in front of their home.

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Healing Journey Three things helped Sonny survive—his wife, the Veterans Administration (VA), and music.

Life changed when he moved back to Hawai‘i Island and met Getta. She was not prejudiced against Vietnam veterans.

They fell in love and married. It wasn’t until they had their first baby, a son, Robert, that she witnessed the toll the war had taken on him. When the baby woke up in the nighttime crying to be fed, the sound jolted Sonny awake and he was back in Vietnam ready to fight. Getta didn’t know about PTSD.

His actions were frightening and after he got over an episode, he’d be quiet, take his ‘ukulele and go off by himself. She called the VA and pleaded with them to help him but they were not very responsive in those early years. No therapy was offered. Getta told herself, “I need to watch and learn what causes his episodes.” Without any professional help, she began to understand that all he was going through was not his fault. She said, “I saw his heart. He is a really good person.

He will be the best husband. He will be the best father.” Their daughter, Nani, was born, a welcome additon to the family.

Getta learned how to avoid situations that triggered an episode and the children learned, too. She said, “There were days when we all had to walk on pins and needles, but my goal was that we would be one.” Getta did not want a divided family, and after Vietnam veterans got the acknowledgment and therapy they needed, she could proudly say, “Sonny became the man I always thought he would be. He treats me like a queen. My judgment of Sonny was right.”

In 1992, an Army unit commanding officer made a difference in the lives of Hawai‘i’s Vietnam veterans. When the officer received an invitation from the Hyatt Regency at Waikoloa Resort (now Hilton Waikoloa Village) for a lu‘au to honor the military people who served in Kuwait, the officer responded— they would come if Hawai‘i’s Vietnam veterans could come, too. That officer realized how unjustly those veterans had been treated and should at long last be honored. The hotel welcomed the idea. It was an occasion that made a difference.

Sonny said, “We were treated like kings.” Their service to the country was acknowledged. They finally felt the pride they

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Operation Homecoming where the veterans were honored for their service in 1992 at the Hyatt (now Hilton) in Waikoloa Resort.

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

should have felt many years earlier.

VA counselors came from Kona to Nā‘ālehu every week for 12 years to hold meetings with veterans. Sonny said, “There were lots of us who needed help. The group meetings helped a lot.”

“Music helped me to stop thinking negative thoughts,” Sonny said. “At first I played for my own pleasure and then I started to get asked to play for restaurants, wedding receptions, and

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parties. I play peaceful quiet music and I only play for small groups. I still can’t handle big crowds and confusion.”

Most days, Sonny wears his Vietnam hat. Many people thank him for his service. One person gave him a medallion with “Thank you for your service” on one side, and “Your nation proudly salutes you” on the other. The hat also attracts veterans, some who are still suffering from that war. He offers them support and tells them, “Go to the VA and get help. It’s there.”

He said, “People see me as happy-go-lucky. They wouldn’t know what I’ve been through. I’ll never forget the war, but I’ve learned how to deal with the effects from it.”

Music played a big part in his recovery. As Sonny said, “Music makes the mind relax,” something a veteran needs to be able to do.

Whether you have the opportunity to greet Sonny at the bakery or you see another veteran in your travels, remember the commitment they made to their country and what they may have been through. Say, “Thank you for your service.” It will mean a lot. 

Getta and Sunny flying the Vietnam Veterans flag at home.

All photos courtesy of Sonny and Getta Ramos

The Secret Life of Pears Recipe for Poached Pears

Local Food

By Brittany P. Anderson

to purchase locally grown pears, at least for now.

Selecting and ripening pears is the key to an excellent eating experience.

Choose pears with uniform skin, without blemishes, and no soft spots or bruises. Let pears ripen at room temperature outside of the refrigerator but check it daily for ripeness. A pear is ripe when you press a finger gently into the top of the pear where the stem joins the fruit.

If it just starts to give there, the pear is ripe.

If you can acquire just a few of the secret pears, you may want to keep your source close to your chest, especially after making this delicious cranberry juice poached pear recipe. Usually, pears are poached with spices in wine, rum, or cider, but while this recipe omits the boozy nature of the dish, it doesn’t skimp on flavor.

Cranberry Juice Poached Pears 4 large pears 3 cups cranberry juice, sweetened by fruit juices is best 1/2 inch piece of ginger 1/4 tsp cinnamon Method Put cranberry juice, ginger, and cinnamon in a large pan or pot. Peel the pears and add to the juice and spice mixture.

Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a light simmer. Spoon juice over the tops of pears if they stick out. Cook for 15 minutes or until pears are just soft. Remove the pears from the pan, then increase the juice mixture to a light boil. Boil for around 15 minutes until the juice reduces and becomes a light syrup. Slice pears in half, removing the core and any seeds present. Plate the pears, then add a scoop of ice cream like locally made vanilla, maple walnut, or ginger to compliment the dish. Drizzle the syrup over the ice cream and pears, serve immediately. Enjoy!

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

“Just passed a pear tree in Pepe‘ekeo loaded with pears,” read the social media post one sunny morning with an image of a heavily fruiting pear tree. The thread that followed was disbelief, shock, and eager foodies looking for directions to the location. Hawai‘i Island residents are familiar with tropical fruits aplenty, but temperate fruits like pears and peaches are rare, or are they?

Local nurseries increasingly import more non-tropical fruits like apricots, hot climate apples, pears, and apricots. There seems to be a variety worth trying for many of the microclimates on the island. Lower elevation locations do best with heattolerant types, while higher elevations accommodate low-chill fruits.

Pear trees come in various sizes, including dwarf trees, full-sized trees, and shrubs. Most fruit trees are grafted to ensure the fruit is of a specific variety and quality.

Grafting is when one type of plant is physically joined with another, then growing as one. The base is called a rootstock, and the upper part of the graft is called a scion. Grafting is essentially cloning a tree to guarantee characteristics like hardiness and type of fruit.

Asian pears are gaining popularity among home orchards across the island from Kamuela to Ocean View. The sphericalshaped Asian pear has an apple-like crispness and mild sweet juicy flavor. Asian pears are said to be easy to grow and, once established, are bountiful.

Bartlett pears are the most widely known and sold pear in the world. They have the classic “pear shape” and yellow or red skin with slightly grainy white flesh. There have been Bartlett pear sightings reported in Hilo, Kurtistown, and South Kona on Hawai‘i Island. But will local Hawai‘i Island pears be stocked in a store near you?

Unfortunately, unless you live next to someone with one of the secret pear trees on Hawai‘i Island, you may find it difficult

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Suzanne Wang Ceramicist Comes Full Circle

By Ma‘ata Tukuafu

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

he idyllic rural-village feel of Wailea/Hakalau is what Suzanne Wang wanted when she moved to Hawai‘i Island 11 years ago. She set up her ceramic studio on the lush Hāmākua coast in 2016, both living and working in a place where cars rarely pass by. From Northern California, Suzanne has traveled and worked in many big cities, and says this island is now her home. Her studio is filled with ceramic projects in different stages of creation.

“If it wasn’t for this island, I probably wouldn’t be doing pottery,” Suzanne says. “The simpler lifestyle, the space, and my beautiful surroundings has allowed me to thrive as an artist.”

Suzanne and her brother grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, and were mostly raised by their single mom, Mei, who ran a little Chinese restaurant. She worked as a waitress in the

40 Suzanne Wang working on a Tulipia vessel in the studio. photo courtesy of Clinton Ferrara

restaurant from a young age, learning skills that would serve her well in her later endeavors. Her mother worked six days a week, 12 hours a day.

“My mom worked hard her whole life, and I didn’t truly understand her dedication and discipline until I became a ceramicist,” Suzanne says.

At 15 years old, she took her first art class in high school, and Suzanne got hooked on clay. She spent a few years taking community college courses in hand building and sculpture.

After enrolling in San Francisco State University in 1991, she changed her major to theater set design, as she wanted to do more collaborative work. Suzanne had a one-year break from college to work in stop-motion animation, and she also fabricated puppets for a children’s television show. She then continued her studies in design, earning her master’s degree at New York University. Suzanne spent 10 years immersed in theater, film, and television.

“Then 9/11 happened while I was in New York. Work dried up for a while,” Suzanne says. “I then got the opportunity to work in China doing product development for giftware in the American and European markets.”

What she thought would only last a few months turned into two years in mainland China, and a year and a half in Hong Kong. It was an incredible time of change in China, and the

reconnection with her culture was deeply meaningful. Suzanne lived above a tea shop and got her tea education there, a period of respite during her stressful working life.

“Eventually I got burned out with big-city living,” Suzanne says. “A friend in rural Connecticut who had a tea company, offered me a job as an office manager, and I took it.”

Suddenly, she was living in a cabin in the woods, adjusting quickly to the rustic life.

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

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KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

This is when Suzanne realized she was completing a full circle: her great-grandfather was a tea merchant, and here she was, working with tea and sourcing teaware. It reconnected her with pottery. There were a couple of pottery studios in town, and she took a class from one of them, getting her “feet wet again with the clay.” She hadn’t touched clay in 16 years, and Suzanne says it felt like a long-lost love was rekindled. Her job shifted because of a merger, and that’s when she decided to move to Hawai‘i.

Miyo Harumi, the previous owner of Hilo’s long-time establishment, Miyo’s Restaurant, was an old friend who’d had a big impact on Suzanne’s life. They partnered up to open a teahouse in Hilo but plans didn’t work out, and the old Miyo’s had to move. They rebuilt the restaurant from the ground up, Suzanne doing the interior design work, while also starting her freelance work. During this time, she attended a student pottery sale at Hilo Community College, and noticed many lovely pieces with interesting glazes. Over the next two years, she took ceramic courses with Monika Mann. She began selling her work at student art sales, getting motivated and really loving the craft.

In 2014, Suzanne took a workshop at the Donkey Mill Art Center in Kailua-Kona, with master potter Ken Matsuzaki, who was visiting from Mashiko, Japan. His lineage came from Shoji Hamada, who was his teacher’s teacher. Mashiko pottery is deeply steeped in the beauty of folk craft.

“His way of working blew me away. I’d never really understood Japanese pottery techniques and it was hugely inspiring,” Suzanne says. “A year later when Matsuzaki returned to do a residency, I assisted him for a week and that’s

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Tulipia vessel, 2021. photo courtesy Suzanne Wang

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Pop up shop at Kristie Kosmides Studio & Gallery. photo courtesy of Kristie Kosmides

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

when I realized I wanted to learn more about ceramics and pursue it as a vocation.”

Suzanne was eventually accepted by Matsuzaki as his student and she was able to apprentice with him for one year.

Part of her time in Japan was featured in a Hawaiian Airlines documentary.

Suzanne lived a spartan life as an apprentice, riding her bicycle to and from work twice a day from her apartment two miles away. With another apprentice who had been there for seven years, Suzanne was immersed in the potter’s world, where the connection to nature was very strong.

“We worked long days from morning ‘til night, with breaks in between. The majority of time with pottery involves cleaning, organizing, and prep,” Suzanne explains. “The actual throwing, trimming, decoration, and glazing is a small portion of time.

That’s why discipline and structure is so important. My teacher emphasized that this training was necessary to help me build stamina.”

Living the potter’s life gave Suzanne a deeper foundation and understanding of the craft. She says there were so many aspects of the craft to learn, from splitting wood and yard work, to studio photography of the work. In the creation of pottery, repetition can become meditative, the object becoming a part of the person creating it. Suzanne also learned about the indigenous-cultural way of watching and observing with much less talking, adding that the Western style of learning

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Hand coiled vessel with Oribe and Shino glazes, 2016. This piece was made during the Mashiko apprenticeship, using her teacher’s clays, glazes, and firing methods. photo courtesy of Kan Matsuzaki

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

involves so much explaining.

Although communication could be challenging due to the language barrier, she began to realize the importance of a true teacher/student relationship. Suzanne explains that her teacher shouldered an obligation to share, mentor, and to teach skills to his students.

“To be in his world and share his sacred space and home… not a lot of people have access to this,” Suzanne says. “Being an apprentice in Japan felt more like being a disciple, with devotion and complete trust in the teacher.”

Living in Hakalau, Suzanne can walk to the ocean or the

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Glazing in her studio. photo courtesy of Suzanne Wang

rivers, and pick things up from nature that she uses in her work. With a simple pinecone, she can create texture by rolling it onto a bowl, or use a kukui nut to press into the side of a clay sculpture. Feeling connected to nature around her, Suzanne says working with clay grounds her and she is more interested in creating objects that have feeling.

“Energy is transferred to an object, and it leaves you with an experience rather than just something to look at,” Suzanne muses.

In 2019 Suzanne attended a three-week live-in training at Chozen-ji, a Zen Buddhist temple on O‘ahu that specializes in martial and fine arts. The temple grounds also have a pottery studio and a wood firing kiln. It was at Chozen-ji that she learned about Zen pottery and harnessing one’s kiai, (same as Chinese chi). The training helped her develop core strength through zazen (meditation) and breathing exercises so she could put more life force into her work. Her residential training at Chozen-ji solidly informed Suzanne about her apprenticeship in Japan, and both were bookends of important lessons on discipline.

“Failure is the best teacher,” laughs Suzanne. “And slow learning equals deep teaching.”

Suzanne’s years of working in design and product development has helped her communicate clearly with the interior designers she collaborates with now. She is currently focusing on accessories and decor commissions for

Hawai‘i resorts and private residences. Her functional pieces (tableware, drinkware, and home decor items) are sold at local galleries and shops.

Suzanne also teaches ceramics to kūpuna one day a week at the Hawai‘i Island Adult Care center. Most of the participants have dementia or other forms of cognitive impairment.

Suzanne loves getting to know her students, and says working in clay is very therapeutic for them.

“There is no attachment, so our little projects can have a lot more freedom and play when it comes to experimentation.

It’s a tactile, forgiving, and playful medium for them,” Suzanne says. “Even though they may immediately forget what they’ve made, there is such joy in seeing something they can be proud of.”

Her students have unique personalities that emerge through their work. They’ve been a huge inspiration for her, and Suzanne says they have helped her become a better ceramicist.

“I’m coming into ceramics kind of late in life, but I can do this until the day I die. As long as I can use my hands, I can do ceramics. It is a lifestyle and a vocation and it feels limitless to what I can create. The most important thing is to never stop learning, and to continue to pursue your passions.” 

For more information: suzennewangceramics.com

A kupuna haumana with student artwork, where Suzanne teaches at Hawaiÿi Island Adult Care. photo courtesy of Suzanne Wang

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

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in 1978,” Irene notes.

Adult honu, the largest of the hard-shelled sea turtles, grow to four feet long and 400 pounds. The primary threats to the species are hooking or entanglement in coastal fisheries, disease, vessel collision, and climate change impacts.

Nesting Observations Needed In the last few years, researchers have witnessed increased nesting activity throughout the main Hawaiian Islands. This success provides a unique opportunity for the public to help biologists find and monitor nesting activity during the May-toSeptember nesting season. In Hawai‘i, honu typically dig their nests near or under coastal vegetation, whereas they usually bask closer to the water.

The public is encouraged to report any observations of turtles digging with their rear flippers, especially if it occurs late at night or very early in the morning. “Turtles like to flip sand with their front flippers when basking, but digging with their rear flippers might indicate nesting activity,” Irene

By Rachel Laderman with Irene Kelly

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

Four decades ago, the sight of honu (green sea turtles) in near-shore Hawaiian waters was rare. Since then, the honu population—once devastated by harvesting practices—has rebounded thanks to state and federal protections. Today, it is common to see honu feeding, swimming, and basking (sleeping) on the beach throughout Hawai‘i.

“In Hawai‘i, we let turtles be turtles and focus our management activities on removing or reducing threats,” says Irene Kelly, Sea Turtle Recovery Coordinator for National Marine Fisheries Service, Pacific Islands. “Their positive population trend is the result of protections enacted during the 1970s, which banned the harvest of turtles and reduced nesting beach disturbance at the primary nesting rookery at Lalo.”

Lalo, or French Frigate Shoals, is within the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, where 96% of honu nest.

The honu‘ea (hawksbill sea turtle), which nests primarily along the Ka‘ū coast and on Moloka‘i, has also benefited from protections.

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A Generation under Protection Mature honu females nest every three years, laying approximately four clutches (nests)—each containing about 100 eggs—per nesting season. After a two-month incubation period, hatchlings (baby turtles) emerge from their nests, typically under the cover of night, and quickly scramble to the ocean. They then ride ocean currents, feeding and growing for approximately six years until they’re around 14 inches in length.

At this age and size they return to the near-shore reef habitats of Hawai‘i. It is in these coastal habitats that honu will continue to feed and grow until they reach sexual maturity at approximately 30–35 years old. Adult honu then migrate back to the beach where they originally hatched, continuing the cycle for future generations.

“We have seen only one full generation of honu since the species acquired protections under the Endangered Species Act

explains. “Some beaches in Hawai‘i are very remote and it’s just not possible to monitor every beach, so we rely on public reporting of nesting females, turtle tracks, or sightings of little hatchlings.”

Let Them Bask! How You Can Help: ● View sea turtles from a distance of at least 10 feet. In Hawai‘i, we view turtles respectfully. Honu basking on the beach are getting much-needed rest. Give them space and don’t feed, chase, or touch them. Use that zoom feature on your camera! ● Avoid beach driving. Off-road trucks and ATVs can crush nests, create tire ruts that trap hatchlings, and degrade habitats. Driving on the beach is also illegal in most areas. ● No “white light” at night. Lights can easily disorient sea turtles and hatchlings. A disoriented hatchling can end up in vegetation or inland away from the ocean where they may die. Avoid shining bright lights near sea turtles or on nesting beaches after dusk, such as flash photography,

flashlights, vehicle lights, exterior building lights, and beach fires. ● Collect fishing line or other rubbish from the beach. Help keep our reefs and beaches clean of debris, as hatchlings and marine wildlife can become entangled in marine debris and lost fishing gear. Help save turtles by participating in beach clean-up events! ● Report nesting activity or animals in distress. If you see a turtle digging, witness any turtle tracks going up into coastal vegetation, find any hatchlings, or observe sea turtles in distress (dead, injured, or in need of help), call NOAA’s Marine Wildlife Hotline at 888.256.9840 or send an email with photos to RespectWildlife@noaa.gov.

All photos courtesy of NOAA NMFS except “Honu taking a breath,” courtesy of Don McLeish, Maui Rachel Laderman, Sustainable Pacific Program, Lynker LLC/ NOAA Affiliate, Hawai‘i Island

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

Top Left: Honu resting.

Top Center: Honu taking a breath.

Top Right: Honu with yellow tang and goldring surgeonfish.

Left Center: A young honu.

47 Left Bottom: Honu grazing on algae.

Background Photo: Baby green sea turtle, called a hatchling.

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

By Nancy Kahalewai

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ince the 1800s, many different types of music have deeply and permanently influenced Hawaiian music. European folk songs and orchestras, Christian hymns, Portuguese ‘ukulele and Spanish steel guitars, Mexican ranchera and Puerto Rican rhythms, American musicals and big bands have all contributed. As the Hawaiian Islands continued to adapt to foreigners arriving on their shores, traditional Hawaiian music and dance also began a process of acculturation with the instruments and songs from visitors, entrepreneurs, missionaries, and immigrants from all over the world. By the 20th century and the beginning of the recording industry, the stage was set for the “Golden Age of Hawaiian Music.”

In describing the distinctive evolution and expansion of Hawaiian music during the 20th century, Honolulu magazine (December 2010) stated, “Its roots in language and culture give it an almost inexhaustible flexibility, letting it incorporate outside influences, from swing to jazz to rock, without losing its own distinctive personality.

Trace its development from the monarchy era to the age of rock ‘n roll, and you’re struck by Hawaiian music’s ability to remain relevant to each new generation, and by its

continued popularity not only in the Islands, but across the globe.”

Hilo’s Songbird Christy Leina‘ala Lassiter grew up in an extended family that thrived in this golden age, which she describes as “a kind, gentle and pleasant era of super gracious hospitality.” Sunday dinners and beach picnics were always a time to relax and enjoy music and hula with family and friends, as everyone would come together to laugh, sing, and dance. The elders were genuine and generous, she recalls, “always asking about your family, observing your attire, and feeding you.” She fondly remembers those days when people didn’t worry so much, and “you kept your appointments, and you kept your word!”

Christy’s success is a result of Hawai‘i Island’s ranching and

hospitality boom.

Her roots span upslope Hualālai, Pana‘ewa, and Hilo’s bayfront areas. Her Irish, Welsh, and Scottish ancestry merged generations ago with her maternal Hawaiian ‘ohana, and throughout her life she was exposed to the culture and values of them all.

Camaraderie and music were infused with what she calls the “happy spirit of sharing and caring that stayed in the ears and deep in the heart.”

Many of Christy’s childhood memories were set in the family’s Hilo home that was built in 1886 and named Hale Alani (House of Allen), after her maternal great-grandfather Allen S. Wall, who arrived from New Jersey to raise sheep on Hawai‘i Island. Her nana (grandmother) Kapua Wall Heuer lived in this home where Christy and her sister, Keala, learned the gracious art of Hawaiian hospitality while entertaining the many guests who passed through and marveled at the gorgeous 180-degree view of Hilo Bay. Since Christy with her koa ÿukulele in her cruise ship finery. photo by Reed Takaaze

There were many years growing up in Hilo and Pāpa‘ikou, where they lived a ranching lifestyle, learning practical skills in animal husbandry, particularly with horses. The tasks involved could be quite gritty, including addressing injuries, deworming, saddle care, grooming, breeding, sheltering, feeding, and brushing them. “We were very involved with the 4-H Club, and that kept us out of trouble. We were strong barnyard girls who could go from surgery in the barn to slapping on lipstick and being beautiful!”

It was Nana Kapua who taught Christy’s mom, “Pudding” Burke, her sister Keala, and her about the tradition of pā‘ū riding. “The 12 yards of satin are actually meant to protect our clothes underneath. They were held in place with kukui nuts, tucked in at the waist, and easy to release in case the fabric got caught up or entangled.” Her own first pā‘ū ride was during the 1975 Merrie Monarch Festival. She soon took up photography and noticed that the horses loved showing off for an audience and to have their pictures taken. “Horses are very sensitive, aware, and sometimes vain. They love to have fun, too. We would take them swimming in Hilo Bay back when there were stables next to the Hilo Civic Auditorium. We would take off their saddles and leave the bridles on, and then they played games with each other in the water!”

In 1981, Christy won the Miss Aloha Hawaii Pageant, receiving a scholarship. That evolved to her becoming a pageant emcee at future events in the Hilo Civic. “The winners of this pageant in Hilo, as well as the Miss Kona Coffee Pageant and pageants from other islands, go on to compete in the state’s Miss Hawaii contest and these winners go on to compete in the national Miss America Pageant,” Christy explains.

She also attended University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, receiving a bachelor of arts in English, and worked as a career counselor for Alu Like for years.

Päÿü riding for Molokaÿi in a Hilo Merrie Monarch parade. photo by Gladys Suzuki, courtesy of Christy Lassiter

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

her first little guitar and record player, Christy fell in love with music. Her father, Chuck Lassiter, who worked for United Airlines, had an extensive record collection and she remembers singing and playing Sound of Music over and over. The whole family loved to throw parties and her nana encouraged her mother, sister, and her to sing and dance the hula for everyone, as well as assist with setting the table with their finest dishes and flowers, and serving food that included an abundance of fresh local produce, as well as the family’s pasturegrown beef or occasional roasted lamb.

She easily embraced the idea of performing, even directing her sister in their duo presentations. She says she “loved the vibe” from the fresh greens used in their costumes and table decor to the delightful responses of the guests.

“Everyone participated and enjoyed these moments immensely, while they all sang along,” she recalls fondly. This style of grand hospitality was ushered in during an era when the glamour, beauty and excitement of the Hawaiian Islands were first embraced by the modern world. “Today, these classic songs reflect precious memories, life experiences, and love stories of people and places, which all enhance the accompanying hula and give the audience ‘chicken skin.’”

In third grade, Christy was enthralled when the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra came to Hilo—even her teacher noticed her affinity for performances.

She later studied hula basics with Aunty “Sweetheart” Nathaniel at the Haili Gym, where she practiced the popular hapa-haole (cultural fusion) songs of the day. She also learned the piano and ‘ukulele, and later performed at Uncle Billy’s Hilo Bay Hotel every Tuesday night for three years.

Family summers were usually spent traveling in an annual trail ride with their Mahealani Ranch cousins.

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KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

Performing with JJ Ahuna and his five-string bass guitar. photo courtesy of Christy Lassiter

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Recording a Legacy Her first album, entitled Le‘ale‘a, was produced in 2016

by Red Moon Recording Studios in Hilo. She’s performed for years, both privately and publicly, “but in March 2020, the pandemic abruptly brought all live music to a halt,” she reflects. “I soon realized that I had to find a new

Christy’s tutu wahine Nana Kapua, a päÿü rider, on her favorite mare Olomana. painting

by Linus Chao, presented at Kapua’s 70th birthday celebration, 1982. photo by Nancy S Kahalewai

Christy’s three recording productions (2016–2022). photo by Nancy S Kahalewai

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

audience.” Her performances at weddings, the Hilo Yacht Club, and everywhere else were suddenly shut down, and she retreated into her inner introvert. Thus, her own very personal song was born, “Corona Blues,” and is featured on her second album, ‘EHA (2021). The album went on to earn a Nā Hōkū Hanohano awards finalist achievement.

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Last year, she was inspired to do yet another recording.

“Covid taught me the importance of leaving a legacy,” she realized. So, she contacted her musician buddies and invited them to think about their favorite hula songs. “In October 2021, we recorded a new album at Hilo’s Palace Theater, and I decided to produce it myself.” It is entitled Kou Lima Nani E— Na mele hula, meaning Your Beautiful Hands—the songs and stories of hula.

Being mindful of the energy from her listeners, and the healing force that music can have, is of utmost importance to her. “I know that when I sing, it affects my audience and

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

With her ÿukulele, right before the guests arrive. photo courtesy of Christy Lassiter

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Friends, Food, Wine a perfect combination Single-Malt Scotches Single-Batch Whiskey • High-End Vodkas Tequilas & Gins • Fine Wines & Beer • Tobacco

even me on a cellular level. So, with my gifts, I try to deliver sweet sounds to others, to give them a reminder of the tender, caring, sweet side of the world.”

Touching the souls of others is truly a blessing that she cherishes. “When I perform or record, I use my na‘au [deep instincts] to tune into those around me. I use my heart too, incorporating all of life’s blues, joys, and sacred journeys to deliver emotive songs that engage my audience in genuine ways. And I always try to honor the intentions of other songwriters when I sing their songs.”

Presentation and intention are important, as “they reflect on your whole community. I know that I carry all of Hilo with me when I perform, including my ancestors and all the people who support me. Our kuleana [sacred responsibility] is to perpetuate the deeper meaning of our Hawaiian music. It is all part of the fabric of my culture—the humility, reverence, and performing skills that Hilo and my ‘ohana have given me. It’s like all of my life experiences, education, and DNA are strung up into a sweet lei. Leina‘ala, that’s me!”  For more information: christylassitermusic.com

Featured Cover Photographer: Don Hurzeler Don Hurzeler’s business cards say he’s an author, photographer, and old retired guy. We think the latter is far from true, Don seems busier than many people half his age.

As a lifelong athlete, nothing seems to slow Don down.

Raised in Palos Verdes Estates, California, in his youth, Don earned the NCAA Division 2 All-American in Track and Field.

He’s also been surfing nearly his entire life. As an adult with a 40-year insurance career, he and his wife of 53 years, Linda, moved 14 times for business, including Chicago, New York City, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles, to name a few. They have also traveled to 105 countries. The couple has two grown children, both in California, and five grandchildren.

In 2008, Don and Linda retired from corporate America and moved to Hawai‘i Island. Linda’s grandparents had lived on the island for most of their married life and the couple had been visiting since 1969.

Don credits CJ Kale for teaching him and Linda everything they know about photography. He says, “We fell in love with it on our first day of retirement here.

Life has been one big adventure with CJ and others since that day. I have taken a couple of thousand photos a day virtually every day since 2008. You tend to take a lot of photos when you are doing wave photography.”

What started as a hobby has since won Don and Linda numerous awards.

In his so-called retirement, Don has written seven books with a new one just out, titled Suddenly Retired. He and Linda also co-own Lava Light Gallery in Waikoloa with CJ Kale.

As for his subjects, Don says, “Inspiration is all around me

on this beautiful island, from my backyard, to the beach, up Mauna Kea, or out to Kīlauea volcano. I love Hawai‘i. Regarding the photo on this issue’s cover, he loves photographing surfers, body boarders, and anything else moving in the ocean!

Don adds, “I have found that the best years of my life are the years I am alive. I am happier now than I’ve ever been.

Age does matter and aging does come with a price—but that price is not your happiness. You make your happiness at any age.”

This photo of Linda and Don on the cliff looking down at the lava as it entered the sea in Kalapana was taken by CJ Kale on the first day they met him in 2008. They have been friends and business partners ever since.

For more information: donhurzeler.com

Table of Contents Photographer:

Kirk Shorte

Kirk Shorte has the distinction of being the first person to be featured on a Ke Ola Magazine cover or table of contents three times, all since 2018. Given that, our readers may remember Kirk has been an avid photographer since he was a young child, when he found a still-working Brownie camera in his grandfather’s attic.

Having moved to Hawai‘i Island in 2004, Kirk’s focus shifted more to photography in 2008, and he started his business in 2010. He considers himself an assignment or gig photographer, going where he’s called for each job. His specialty is real estate and event photography. Kirk says, “When I shoot for fun, it can be anywhere, at any time, depending on what my goal is for the resulting photo.” The photo of a boggie boarder in action on our table of contents pages was shot in January 2016.

Kirk reflects on his passion, “There is something mesmerizing about sunlight dancing off an object or discovering the almost magical scenes that surround us in Hawai‘i—to feel the rush that comes just before I’m able to capture that perfect shot.

I get excited when what I’ve visualized can be captured and shared with the world.”

For more information: www.kirkshorte.com

Rock Star Pet Supplies

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

Talk Story with an Advertiser

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Providing West Hawai‘i with high quality pet food, treats, toys, and other supplies for dogs, cats, birds, and small animals like bunnies and guinea pigs, Rock Star Pets also boards birds and small animals, and plans to install a selfservice dog wash soon. That’s a huge list of products and services, brought to pet owners by a daughter and mom team, Melissa and Kim Kerr.

Melissa shares, “I have always worked with animals. My career has evolved over time but it has always involved animals. After getting my degrees in zoology and psychology, I worked in zookeeping, but eventually made the switch into the pet industry as I found the work more rewarding. I’ve worked in boarding facilities, doggie daycares, and veterinary offices.

In 2014, I decided to start my own dog walking and pet sitting business, Rock Star Pets Colorado, which is still thriving in Evergeen.

“While I had a strong background in animal care, I knew nothing about running a business.

That’s where my mom came in!

She worked for years as a paralegal before buying a fabric and craft store, which she owned and operated for 16 years. Kim handles the business so I can focus on the pets, products, and customers.”

When Melissa moved to Hawai‘i, Kim and trusted employees continued to run their business in Colorado. While the two women were brainstorming about what they could offer the Kona community, they noted Kona desperately needed an independent pet store, and they had the needed expertise to create it.

Having worked extensively with pets in a professional capacity for more than a decade, Melissa built up a familiarity with a wide range of pets and products. She says, “It’s important to me that we don’t carry any food or product that I wouldn’t give to my own pets.” Many of their products, particularly for birds and small animals, cannot be found anywhere else in Hawai‘i, which is why Melissa has a full online store to service all the islands.

A huge focus in the store is on pet puzzles, interactive feeders and toys, and other enrichment products, because Melissa recognizes that pets love to be challenged and need to have ways to exercise their brains as well as their bodies.

Rock Start Pets also offers locally made treats, accessories, and artwork, and they are always on the lookout for other local products to add. They have gifts for humans, too!

Rock Star Pet Supplies & Gifts 75-5722 Hanama Place, Suite 1100, Kailua-Kona 808.731.5858 rockstarpetshawaii.com

Injeyan Fine Woodworking Island Treasures

Injeyan Fine Woodworking 949.322.1863 Serving Hawai‘i Island injeyanfinewoodworking.squarespace.com

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

Injeyan Fine Woodworking (IFW) is a woodworking business that specializes in custom cabinets, entry doors, heirloomgrade furniture, and architectural millwork.

Art Injeyan originally learned about woodworking nearly 30 years ago, while serving a brief apprenticeship in a cabinet shop, after working for a store fixturing company. Prior to that, Art’s background had been as a lead pressman in a large screen-printing plant. He had a reputation for being detail oriented and meticulous. When a friend offered him a job doing showcases for stores and financial institutions, he decided to change industries. This turned out to be a life changing decision!

Early on, Art began educating himself in the arts of millwork, cabinet design, solid-wood joinery, laminates, and curved surfaces via books, manuals, and reference guides. When something new would come up, he would research it. (Because of that he now has a large reference library.) He earned his contractor’s license in 1997.

He says, “The numerous aspects of woodwork made sense to me from the start, and I learned very quickly.” IFW originated in Laguna Beach, California, serving high-end homes and many celebrities.

In early 2021, Art and his wife, Brenda, moved to Hawai‘i Island. His shop is located on their property, south of Captain Cook. Art is solution oriented and shares that he brought with him, “A professional work ethic: calls and emails are promptly answered. I show up to meetings on time and to work when scheduled.”

Specializing in custom remodels, IFW is unique because of the wide range of work Art can do. As a master craftsman, he is as adept at designing and building cabinets as he is at creating entry doors or fine furniture utilizing solid wood joinery.

He is able to mill the raw wood, and work with it to the finished product.

He is also one of the few people on the island who makes precision face frame cabinets with inset doors.

Being mostly self-taught, he is undaunted by challenges presented by new materials, designs, and building techniques.

He currently uses a lot of sapele mahogany and other wood species which are readily available on the island, and is excited to try sustainable woods native to Hawai‘i Island. His is able to make many different things, from fences and decks to beautiful complex furniture pieces, and everything in between.

We highly recommend visiting Art’s website so you can get a sense of his talent, creativity and versatility, then give him a call for a complimentary consultation and bid.

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KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

UA MAU KE EA O KA ‘ÄINA I KA PONO. The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.

[Its sustainability depends on doing what is right.] Proclamation by Kona-born King Kamehameha III in 1843. Later adopted as the Hawai‘i state motto.

Publisher, Editor Barbara Garcia, 808.329.1711 x1, Barb@KeOlaMagazine.com

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KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

E mpowEr Y our G oldEn Y Ears Aging Gracefully with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

The use of Hyperbarics has long been associated with treatment of decompression injuries associated with SCUBA and in the treatment of non-healing wounds. In 2020 Dr. Efrati, and again in 2022 with Dr. Hadanny, these two landmark studies demonstrated the positive effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy on genetic expression associated with aging and longevity…in humans. Hadanny’s study was able to demonstrate 1,342 genes upregulated, and 570 genes downregulated. The upregulated genes included anti-inflammatory, growth and repair hormones genes, while downregulated genes

included pro-inflammation and apoptosis genes associated with cell death. This is the first time in humans that hyperbarics is shown to have direct effects on transcriptome in genetics and demonstrates significant changes in gene expression of the normal aging population. (Hadanny) Healing in the body depends on sufficient oxygen levels in the cells. Often times injuries and sickness linger as oxygen levels are not sufficient to support normal cell function. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is an avenue that provides increased oxygen levels to damaged and sick areas of the body gently and effectively. Hyperbarics has been able to exhibit many benefits to individuals seeking optimal body and brain function. While many people utilize hyperbaric oxygen therapy for sickness and injuries, there are also many who utilize hyperbarics for improving and “supercharging” their general health.

In the first scientific study published in November 2020 it was demonstrated that they could turn back the clock in areas believed to be responsible for the frailty and ill health that comes with aging.

During the aging process, telomeres, the protective covers at the end of each chromosome, shorten progressively. The accumulation of shortening of these telomeres is believed to contribute to cells becoming more inactive; what is called senescence. Generally, the more senescence present, the unhealthier the tissues and organs systems.

A research group at Shamir Medical Center of Tel Aviv University placed groups of people into categories and subjected them to hyperbaric oxygen therapy over a period of three months.

Throughout the study, various cells were sampled and observed.

The telomere region of each chromosome was observed to be increased on an average of 37%.

Decreasing senescence or “zombie” cells was observed at levels never before seen. It is understood that lifestyle modifications such as intense exercise and nutrition have been shown to have inhibiting effect on telomere shortening up

to 11-16%. However, people in the study subjected to hyperbaric oxygen therapy were able to decrease genetic damage and aging characteristics by 25 years. How is this possible? By elongation of telomeres and upregulation of gene expression far beyond any current available interventions or lifestyle modifications. Again, findings in these clinical trials are remarkable, as the genetic expression of aging individuals in the study were able to decrease their genetic age by as much as 25 years. Furthermore, the reduction of senescent cells also implies improvements with tissue function.

Q: How does hyperbarics work in the body?

A: In conditions at sea level, only red blood cells have the ability to carry oxygen in the bloodstream to the cells. By way of hyperbaric oxygen therapy, breathing in oxygen molecules dissolve into the liquid part of the blood called plasma. This enables oxygen to be delivered to compromised and injured areas of the body that may not have sufficient blood flow. This dissolving oxygen into the plasma is made possible by a physics gas law known as “Henry’s law “and is unable to occur with breathing oxygen at sea level without additional atmospheric increase of pressure.

Q: Is there a difference in hyperbaric chambers and operations?

A: Yes, hyperbarics are performed here at our office by board certified individuals, and our chambers are FDA and ASME certified. A certified safety director is always present.

Q: What are some of the effects of Hyperbarics in the body?

A: Observations during hyperbaric oxygen therapy studies include decrease swelling and inflammation, growth of new blood vessels and nerve tissue, neuroplasticity, significantly increased stem cell proliferation, and improved brain function. A general feeling of improved well-being is often reported.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO EXPERIENCE the

positive effects of hyperbarics, contact Dr. Mizuba to see how this may benefit you. Dr. Mizuba is

a diplomate of the American Chiropractic Board of Sports Physicians, a member of Undersea

and Hyperbaric Medical Society, board-certified in hyperbaric oxygen therapy level lll and

hyperbarics safety director certified. He teaches hyperbaric safety operations and compliance

Dr. Eric Mizuba

internationally. Dr. Mizuba continues to serve as a staff doctor for the USGA each summer and in the healthcare system of Major League Baseball.

This sponsored content is courtesy of The O2 Lab/Dr. E.S. Mizuba, D.C., DACBSP, CHT, CSD, located at 65-1206 Mamalahoa Hwy. in Waimea.

For more information visit www.drmizuba.com or call 808.491.2462.

Award Winning Realtor® Celebrating 18+ Years in West Hawaii!

Kelly Shaw 808.960.4636 Realtor Broker, R(B )-21516 ABR, e-Pro, CRS, GRI, CLHMS kelly.shaw@compass.com buyahomeinkona.com

KONA | HOLUALOA | KEAUHOU | SOUTH KONA

73-1079 KU`ULEIALOHA CIRCLE KAILUA KONA, HI 3 Bed | 2 Bath | 1,492 sq ft home | 12,087 sf lot $899,000 | MLS 659940

73-1325 NAWAHIE LOOP KAILUA KONA, HI

KeOlaMagazine.com | May – June 2022

3 Bed | 2 Bath | 1,640 sq ft home | 10,397 sf lot $950,000 | MLS 656831

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Vibrant garden views greet you as you enter the spacious living room of this quietly sophisticated single level home. Vaulted ceilings and an abundance of windows create a serene, private sanctuary. The roomy kitchen ofers direct access to the attached two-car garage.

The huge ensuite main bedroom can easily accommodate a king-sized bed and extra space for a sitting/TV area or home office. A private backyard w/covered lanai sits at the back of the house, offering extra living space and more room for entertaining.

Pristine and move-in ready, this updated home offers peek-a-boo ocean views from both the primary bedroom and expansive great room. The single level open floor plan runs seamlessly from the front door to the huge backyard and covered lanai. The large kitchen has an abundance of cabinets and an island for extra counter space. There are three bedrooms, one with an attached bathroom w/ a double vanity & walk-in shower. Located in the popular Lokahi Makai neighborhood of north Kailua-Kona.

“...when it was finally our turn to take the leap into home ownership I knew we would be in good hands with Kelly. Not only is she top notch with her level of professionalism and knowledge, Kelly has a heart of gold and the patience of a saint. She was very quick to respond to any issues that arose, and answered all of my questions promptly and clearly...If you are looking for a seasoned, savvy, and above-all caring Realtor, Kelly is all that and more!”

- Happy Home Buyers/Google review Compass is a licensed real estate broker and abides by Equal Housing Opportunity laws. All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only.

Information is compiled from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, changes in price, condition, sale, or withdrawal without notice. No statement is made as to the accuracy of any description. All measurements and square footages are approximate. This is not intended to solicit property already listed. Nothing herein shall be construed as legal, accounting or other professional advice outside the realm of real estate brokerage.