By Sean “Peaman” Pagett | Special To West Hawaii Today It’s great believing in miracles and magic because I get to see instances of both every day. On Sunday morning I found it miraculous that we were starting our 25th
By Sean “Peaman” Pagett | Special To West Hawaii Today
It’s great believing in miracles and magic because I get to see instances of both every day. On Sunday morning I found it miraculous that we were starting our 25th year of Frozen Pea Production events.
Time really does fly when you’re having fun, and I find it absolutely amazing that the Peaman Splish-Splash and Super Bowl Shuffle Biathlon was our 302nd fun, free adventure.
One of the main reasons I feel so amazed by our longevity is that each one has a story of his own that starts as soon as the previous one finishes. Since I tend to be a person who moves a little slow, I like to spread out the pre-event preparation over several weeks.
Each segment always involves a lot of help from our outstanding community volunteers which truly makes our FPP get-togethers events that are put on by the community for the community.
The fun usually begins at my favorite place, The Club in Kona, where I get the sign-out sheets copied and prepped, followed by a check of the previous year’s pea-sults and course records.
Collecting prizes and shoes for our “Reuse a Shoe” program are constant, but the prepea fun really gets going about three or four days before the event when we load up a couple of shopping carts with a ton of snacks, toys and race supplies.
For Sunday’s event I was blessed to have the help of Chris Green, who also helped me get all our regular event supplies organized and ready in our FPP warehouse. The two days prior to each of our aerobic adventures are usually spent answering a lot of phone calls and picking up any last-minute prizes and donations.
I really enjoy all of the prep stuff that I do, but find that even when I write out a list, I still forget to do something.
More behind-the-scenes stuff gets prepped by super volunteers, Doug Henbest, Jay Plasman, Bill “Papa Pea” Pagett, and Bo and Jamie Pardau. Somehow our monthly routines all come together on our event days, not necessarily like a well-choreographed dance but at least like some fairly decent out-dated disco.
Our race days are truly miraculous, and even with a pea-brain like myself pretending to be in charge, things actually move along pretty well. Sure I may forget something each time, but when I’m surrounded by great friends and volunteers, we are always able to right the ship and continue moving forward.
On Sunday, 7-year-old Kaiden Lieto and I got things rolling in the morning by greeting a bunch of visitors and first-timers. I’m glad Kaiden was there so my always-loony look didn’t scare too many people away.
Once the sun was up, we had a constant flow of pea-ticipants and awesome volunteers. Papa Pea brought down our two fluorescent green buoys that were donated by Cliffhanger and Bobbi Reif-Acheson.
Plasman, the most organized of all of us, was also there early to help set up and give us a much more professional look.
The pilgrimage continued with the Pardaus joining us to paddle out the buoys and, of course, the man who does the work of 10 people, Doug Henbest.
It truly is incredible to be part of this semi-smooth running machine and to watch the event take shape.
Chris “Polar Bear” Becker and Jim Buban organized and set up the timing sticks. Brian Fujimori took a break from cleaning the pier to help set up the food and pass out P-shirts. Laura Dierenfield and John Simmerman from PATH brought down the time machine. Kaeti Ecker popped up like an angel to help with sign-outs, and Dene Sturm showed up to donate her boundless energy and enthusiasm.
With all of this preparation going on, it’s easy to forget to look around and acknowledge all of the fun pea-ple making their way to Kaiakeakua Beach next to Kailua Pier.
It was a very beautiful morning with smooth ocean conditions. With each person or group of people, the energy seemed to build and our prize box continued to fill up.
All of our long-time contributors, like Tim Wiley of Costco; Diana Bertsch from Ironman; Grant and Janet Miller from the HP Bike Works stores; and the Lee family from The Club in Kona, all pitched in.
Joining them were the Schiff family from Kamaaina Diamond Co., Abra Pintor and the good folks at the Ultimate Burger; Jason and Melissa Braswell from the Big Island Running Co.; Cathee Malapit from Cathee’s Kitchen; and, of course, Marty Barger; and Team Big Island Honda Kona.
Barger and the Honda team have been a gigantic blessing for us at our pea events. For the past several years they have helped us cover a bit of our event costs. We use their contributions to make sure each youngster goes home with a toy.
The toy shopping is always my favorite each month and someday I’m hoping to connect with Walmart manager John Yates and see if we can get a discount on our $500 of toys, food and race supplies each month.
For now, I’m extremely proud of our negative profit status.
From sunup until our final finisher crosses the line, volunteers and pea-ticipants all work together to move boxes, tables and race stuff into place, and then help clean it up and pack it away.
Naming everyone who helps out would be quite challenging, but hopefully this column will help show how amazing our community is, and that, yes, the aloha spirit is alive and well.
If you want to join the fun or contribute a prize or snack item for our next adventure on Feb. 19, call Peaman on my 24-hour holiday hotline at 938-2296.
