WAILUA — “This should be Mahelona Month with all the activities going on,” one spectator said, Tuesday. Coming on the heels of its statehood lu‘au, the bon dance last week, the Samuel Mahelona Memorial Hospital long term care unit wrapped
WAILUA — “This should be Mahelona Month with all the activities going on,” one spectator said, Tuesday.
Coming on the heels of its statehood lu‘au, the bon dance last week, the Samuel Mahelona Memorial Hospital long term care unit wrapped up summer in style with its second beach outing to Lydgate Park.
The fact that resident Sadamu Tasaka was celebrating his 95th birthday only added more fuel to the fun of being at the beach by the hospital’s long term care residents.
“We’ve been doing this for 23 years,” said Josie Pablo, the hospital’s recreation director. “We d o it twice a summer, once in June, and then in August. The August one is really special because we get the help of students from Okinawa.”
Earlier, there was speculation about the students arriving in Hawai‘i because of the swine flu outbreak said Shar Ono, director of nursing for the Kaua‘i Community College.
“They don’t have any waves in Okinawa,” Ono said. “Just flat water, so if they tell you they know how to swim, you still need to keep an eye on them because we have waves here and they don’t know how to handle waves.”
Six students from the Okinawa College of Nursing arrived here Sunday for a two-week study tour that includes tours of Kaua‘i’s hospital facilities, including the hands-on beach outing with Mahelona Hospital, study in English and Hawaiian culture.
Pablo said normally the hospital hosts the bon dance to coincide with the arrival of the Okinawa students so they can get a feel of how Hawai‘i celebrates a Japanese tradition, but the schedule this year prevented that.
“But we have a barbecue, today,” Pablo said. “We want them to know the happy feeling of going to the beach that comes with a barbecue.”
The beach outing by the hospital, believed to be the only one in the state that is undertaken by a hospital, is made possible because everyone pitches in, Pablo said.
“That includes Kaleo Carvalho of The Kaua‘i Bus who coordinated three buses to help transport the more than 30 residents to the beach,” Pablo said. “Other departments include the maintenance, nutrition, and the hospital staff that come out to help make the residents’ trip to the beach a memorable one.”
She said through the generosity of the Antone and Edene Vidinha Foundation and the Mahelona Hospital Auxiliary, the staff was able to get a second big-wheeled wheelchair to help transport patients to and from the water. In addition to that wheelchair, the hospital was able to acquire some changing screens that help with the patients’ privacy.
When the beach outing first started, Pablo said they got the help of Boy Scouts from Troop 83 under Scoutmaster John Iwamoto. Since then, the help has transitioned to the Kaua‘i Community College Nursing Department, and in August, the Okinawa College of Nursing.
“It’s a major undertaking,” Pablo said. “But when you see how happy the residents are, everyone feels that it’s worthwhile.”
