SEPTEMBER 2, 2015 - VOLUME 30, ISSUE 35
The
Molokai Dispatch T H E I S L A N D ’S N E W S S O U R C E S I N C E 198 5
Celebrating Life and Tradition
Adopt-ATeam, Fund Athlete Travel
Colleen Uechi | Staff Writer
M Photos by Catherine Cluett and Colleen Uechi
By Colleen Uechi | Staff Writer
L
ast Saturday at Molokai’s Guzeiji Soto Mission, families gathered together to keep the memory of loved ones and the traditions of Japanese culture alive on Molokai. The island’s annual bon dance brought more than 100 residents and visitors together for lively drums, dancing and good food. “It’s a time of celebrating ancestors who have passed on,” said Marge Bento, one of the event’s organizers. “We’re kind of partying with them.” In an event repeated every summer in towns around Japan and places around the world, including Hawaii, community members smiled as they danced around the yagura, or bon dance tower, stepping to the beat of the heavily thumping taiko drums. Draped across the courtyard, pink and white lanterns fluttered with slips of paper, on which were written the names of loved ones who’ve passed away. According to Reverend Shuji Komagata, from Oahu’s Soto Mission of Aiea, the origins of bon go back to India, with a disciple of Buddha named Mogallana.
“Mogallana was known to have great powers to see. He had visions,” said Komagata. “In his dream he saw his mother suffering. She would try to grab food to eat and it turned to sand. She’d drink water and it turned to fire.” When Mogallana asked the Buddha what was wrong, Buddha explained that the disciple’s mother had done some less-than-honorable things in her lifetime in an effort to provide for her son. Mogallana, however, could relieve his mother’s suffering by making food for the monks and asking them to pray for his mother, which he did. “That selfless act of providing food for the monks to eat is a good deed, and by doing that he had dream that his mother was no longer suffering,” explained Komagata. “His reaction to this is that he began to dance around in joy.” The taiko drums in today’s bon dances, he added, build up the emotion and excitement, a beat you can not only hear but feel deep within. The Molokai bon dance culminated with a ceremonial burning of the paper strips at the end of the evening, symbolic of releasing the spirits of loved ones.
Kaylie, age 9, top, and 18-month-old Alyssa, middle, get into the festival spirit, while Somei Taiko drummers give dancers a beat, bottom.
THIS WEEK’S
Dispatch
Farmers' Season in Sight
Sonja Angst, left and Josh Cabrerors. Photo by Colleen Uechi.
Girls Volleyball Season Opener at The Barn Pg. 4
Changing Times for the Molokai Ferry
Pg. 3
By Colleen Uechi | Staff Writer
shooters Jershon Kaalekahi, Joshaviah Can a continuation of a two-part series, the breros and Cody Nip were all individual Dispatch takes a look at the four sports champions throughout the last season and kicking off this fall. led the Farmers to their first ever MIL boys’ title in the sport. New shooter Ekolu GreenBoys’ Air Riflery leaf rounds out the squad. With just four boys, Molokai barely “Our kids make due with a lot less remeets the minimum number required to sources [than other schools]. It’s one thing form a team. we’re really proud of is they’re able to hold “When you only have the minimum, their own,” said Imakyure. “… Ideally we’d if one shooter has an off day you’re stuck like to win MILs again and go to states.” with that score,” said second-year boys’ For Nip, the secret to being a pinpoint head coach Daniel Imakyure, since the marksman is simple. team can usually take the top four scores. “When I shoot, I just try singing in my “That presents the challenge.” head,” said Nip, who also won the MIL inThe Farmers are up for it. Returning Sports Continued pg. 3
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olokai High School’s athletes are members of one of the most unique high school sports leagues in the country—encompassing three islands and miles of ocean between schools. With a limited budget, teams have to make some tough choices each season over which games to attend, since most are a flight or ferry ride away. “For other schools to compete it’s a bus drive away, not across a channel,” said MHS Athletic Director Lee DeRouin. “… When we try to get teams to come here, they tell you it’s a cost issue.” Because the travel cost each weekend is unusually high, most of the athletic department’s money goes toward ferry and plane tickets, leaving room for little else in the budget. This season, DeRouin is looking to alleviate that cost through a new fundraising campaign called “Adopt-ATeam.” Community members or groups can select a team of their choice and donate money to help cover the cost of travel. The goal is to help cover travel costs so department funds can instead go toward equipment and uniform replacement, which teams currently fundraise for on their own. Ideally, said DeRouin, money from Adopt-A-Team would help get new uniforms for three teams every four years, a cost of $25,000. Uniforms for boys’ cross country are nearing four years old. Boys’ basketball uniforms are on their fourth or fifth year, and track uniforms could possibly be even older. Scotty Rapanot coached the baseball team last year, the second most expensive sport on Molokai’s payroll. “When I walked into the program last year, we had no money,” he said. “I had to start fresh. … But you gotta do what you gotta do.” He said parents worked hard to help the team raise money multiple times during the season, as well as a little extra when the Farmers took the MIL championship and qualified for states. DeRouin explained that Molokai’s switch from Division I to Division II nearly a decade ago created extra travel costs. Against more equal competition, the Farmers began qualifying for state tournaments more often. To send 95 athletes to states during the year would cost around $11,400, said DeRouin. While other neighbor island schools also have to scrounge up the money to travel to Oahu for state meets, it’s déjà vu for Molokai. “At some schools [the athletes] pay for their own state travel,” said DeRouin. “At Molokai High School it’s very difficult to ask these teams to fundraise for their own state travel after they’ve already fundraised for their own uniforms, equipment and, in some cases, their own preseason travel.” In addition because of the ferry schedule, teams sometimes spent whole Saturdays or even Sundays after games on Maui or Lanai, creating extra costs for
Adopt-A-Team Continued pg. 2
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The
Molokai Dispatch
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