KILAUEA — There was something for everyone as more than 20 community professionals took time out of their daily routines to visit Kilauea School, where they spent part of the morning discussing their various professions with students from kindergarten through
KILAUEA — There was something for everyone as more than 20 community professionals took time out of their daily routines to visit Kilauea School, where they spent part of the morning discussing their various professions with students from kindergarten through grade five.
“The principal finds the people, as well as the teachers,” explained Paulette Guerra, a fifth-grade representative on the student council.
Debbie Erickson and Sue Saldana were the two Kilauea School teachers who headed up the annual career-day program that takes place on the campus, and Friday’s offerings included musicians, chiropractors, exercise leaders, firemen, a beekeeper, goat farmer, neem farmer, cosmetologist, a zipline tour guide, a bird and turtle breeder, as well as presenters from the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge.
“There are a lot of parents of students who have interesting careers,” Principal Fred Rose said. “And, the teachers know a lot of other people who do interesting work.”
One of the more exotic careers involved neem farming, presented by Mark Comstock.
According to the teachers, people where neem originated use it to brush their teeth, and use the branches as an anti-bacterial treatment.
Comstock, who chatted with Guerra between classes, said he has 100 acres of the plant in Kilauea, another 20 acres in Kekaha, and 18 acres in Anahola. He wanted to have all his crops in one place, but couldn’t get enough land in one place.
The primary product he is aiming for from neem is the oil, he said. Comstock explained that it takes about 40 pounds of seed to make one gallon of oil that is used in pest repellents and pet shampoos due to its flea-repelling qualities.
Comstock, who used to grow organic pineapples, said the neem farming grew out of a need to control pests on the pineapples, and now shows even more promise, as it was recently discovered that the juice of the neem fruit might be effective in the fight against taro farmers’ nemesis, the apple snail.
“In India (where the plant originated), the fruit bats ate the fruit, and people just harvested the seeds after the bats had eaten the fruit,” Comstock explained. “They never knew what the juice could be used for.”
Locally, Comstock said they use special machinery to separate the fruit from the seeds, which are dried in preparation for the oil-making process.
Comstock said that Hawai‘i is about the only place in the United States where the trees can be grown, because of the consistency of the sap within the trees that can reach heights “about the size of a mango tree.”
Other locales cause the sap to freeze, which proves fatal to the trees, and because of this Hawai‘i has been certified for the trees, he added.
Louisa Wooten had a pair of five-day-old goat kids on hand, the pair of newborns immediately capturing the attention of her younger audience, who got to sample some of the goat cheese being produced on their farm not far from the school.
One of the teachers noted that she buys a container of the Wooten cheese weekly, and eats the cheese daily, her body knowing when a day is skipped without cheese.
Also on hand for the second time in three days was “Not So Nervous Jerves,” the 18-pound, career-day cat belonging to Kauai Humane Society Education Officer Carol Everett, who used the “working cat” to demonstrate some of the pet-safety rules to the younger students.
School coordinators arranged the presentations so a lot of the presenters using live animals like the Wootens would appeal to the younger students, while more technical presentations like Sybil Nishioka’s textile-design presentation would appeal to older students.
All of the presenters were hosted to refreshments following their presentations.
Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@pulitzer.net.
