Mālama Nā Keiki:  Teaching Aloha `Aina
Saturday, April 3, 2010

Mother Nature played her part in our moving the originally scheduled event date from Feb. 27 (tsunami day!) to April 3, 2010. The annual fundraising event was held at the Hawaii Convention Center where guests enjoyed the "tsunami bubble bar", hundreds of unusual and wonderful silent auction items, and the comraderie of the Hanahau`oli family. As always, it was difficult to get the group to quit socializing and move into dinner once the call to dinner was made! But eventually, move they did, to enjoy a delicious meal, punctuated by the occasional announcement reminding folks of the bidding action for the silent auction items.

Once the silent auction countdowns were made, the crowd settled into some lively bidding for the dozen live items - ranging from a hen house (complete with a presentation of how the chickens should act by the house's designer) to a Tahitian golden pearl necklace. Express Pay and Buy It Now made the evening even smoother for the guests as they had the option of purchasing silent auction items immediately, and had no long lines to stand in at the end of the night when they went to claim their winnings.

Malama, co-sponsored each year by our parent association, Hui Hanahau`oli, and our Board of Trustees, is the school's major fundraiser. Proceeds benefit our financial aid program and special school improvement projects. As we work on tallying up the proceeds from the event, it appears that Malama did very well this year, thanks to all of our donors and attendees.

Mahalo to all who support this event with your attendance, your silent auction donations and especially to our parents for your innumerable volunteer hours in the many months leading up to this very special evening. Thank you!

Mark your calendar now for the 2011 Malama Na Keiki event:  Saturday, February 26, 2011, at the Hawaii Convention Center - see you then!