About Town | 7-1-15

Kona Orchid Society meeting Friday

Kona Orchid Society meeting Friday

The Kona Orchid Society meets at 6 p.m. Friday at Makua Lani Christian Academy, located at 74-4966 Kealakaa St., Kailua-Kona. Guests are welcome.

Speaker Ben Oliveros, from Orchid Eros, will teach attendees how to read and decipher those tags placed in pots. Visit his website to order plants in advance and he will bring them with him when he comes to the meeting.

A show and tell will feature members’ blooming plants, which must be free of pests. A drawing for plants will be held.

Members are urged to bring in a dish to share for the potluck buffet at 6:15 p.m.

For more information, call Jan Rae at 325-4991.

Annual breakfast benefits foundation

The third annual Volunteer Firefighters Pancake Breakfast will be held from 7 to 10 a.m. Saturday at the Kona Palisades community event pavilion located at the bottom of Kaiminani Drive. This breakfast benefits the Daniel Robert Sayre Memorial Foundation which supports the Hawaii Fire Department.

For a $5 donation, those attending get pancakes, bacon or sausage, juice and coffee served by volunteers of Fire Company 7 Bravo. Off-street parking is available at the volunteer fire station next door.

Turtle release slated for Saturday

Since 1989, Mauna Lani Bay Hotel &Bungalows has received juvenile honu (Hawaiian green sea turtles) from Oahu’s Sea Life Park, and has raised them in the saltwater ponds of the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel. The honu are cared for until they grow to a size and weight that are deemed appropriate for release into the wild. This release occurs every July 4 at the ocean’s edge fronting the hotel.

On Saturday, the honu will be gathered at 10:30 a.m. and paraded to the beachfront for the release. A welcome ceremony will kick-off the event followed by the release. This annual celebration honors the honu and helps educate the public about the Hawaiian green sea turtle. Families are invited to join the celebration.

For more information, call 885-6622 or visit maunalani.com.

Fourth of July crafts fair planned

Halau Kalaakeakaui-kawekiu under the direction of kumu Kenneth Aloha Victor presents a one-of-a-kind Fourth of July crafts show from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday at the north lawn of Hale Halawai in Kailua-Kona. Local craft vendors will showcase their talent.

The event will feature food, the Kona Shave Ice Truck, ice cream, cookies, cheesecakes, ceramic and glass art, koa wood, lauhala, Hawaiian quilts, jewelry, clothing, natural skin care products, Kona coffee, macadamia nuts and more

There is no admission charge. For more information, call Sabine at 896-0289.

Business Class for Farmers offered

Hawaii Community College is offering Business Plan Development Training for Farmers from July 7 through Aug. 25 in Captain Cook.

The workshop includes evening lectures on Tuesdays and Thursdays and guest speakers from the Small Business Development Center, the Farm Service Agency Natural Resources Conservation Service and the University of Hawaii at Manoa Cooperative Extension Service. Also planned are three Saturday field trips to local businesses.

Participants will learn how to draft a comprehensive agriculture business plan complete with a marketing plan, financial plan, production plan, management plan, sales plan, appendix and executive summary, which can be used to access a business loan or present to investors.

Participants may present their business idea to a group of business plan professionals as the capstone project of the course. Diana Duff, a long- time farmer and educator from South Kona, will be the coordinator and lecturer for the course.

The cost of this eight-week course is $99. For more information, call Linda Burnham Larish, C3T-1 Sustainable Agriculture coordinator at Hawaii Community College, at 934-2687 or Tracy Poe at the Workforce Development Division Office, 937-0997.

VFW announces weekly schedule

Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 12112 will serve free coffee for veterans at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday

On Friday, onion burgers with salad and desert will be served for $5. The post is behind Kona Locksmith off Kaiwi Street.

For more information, call Don Zero at 509-879-1040.

Hawaii Island nonprofit leaders selected as Weinberg Fellows

Three nonprofit leaders from Hawaii Island were selected for the 2015 Weinberg Fellows Program. Joining this year’s cohort are Kathleen McGilvray, CEO of YWCA of Hawaii Island; Julie Mitchell, executive director of Kukahi Mediation Center; and Dr. Hannah Preston-Pita, CEO of Big Island Substance Abuse Council.

The Weinberg Fellows Program, created and funded by The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, is a management enhancement program designed to increase community-based not-for-profit agency capacity to assist people in need. It was developed in 1992 in Hawaii, where more than 300 Weinberg Fellows have since graduated.

The 2015 Weinberg Fellows Program assembles a diverse group of 11 executive directors from across the state, whose agencies assist disadvantaged community members. In three, four-day sessions in May, July and August, discussion leaders and panellists address the spectrum of executive director roles, responsibilities and relationships.

The program fosters a collaborative, supportive environment within which executive directors and key volunteer leaders of not-for-profit agencies can add to their knowledge and position their services for maximum benefit to the community.

On June 3, two Hawaii Island graduates of the Weinberg Fellows Program won The Harry &Jeanette Weinberg Foundation’s annual Achievement in Management for Excellence Awards. Brandee Menino, CEO of HOPE Services Hawaii, and Paula Uusitalo, executive director of Hawaii Island Adult Care, both received $5,000 awards on behalf of their agencies.

Next year, McGilvray, Mitchell and Preston-Pita will be eligible to apply for these awards.