HANAMA‘ULU — Makaylah Andres got an early start on Girl Scout cookie sales and Tess Schoeny was kept busy with ice cream, Saturday, at Peter Rayno Park.
Andres, a first-year Daisy Scout from the Elsie Wilcox Elementary School program, had a supply of the just-released Girl Scout Cookies on sale at the Hanama‘ulu Neighborhood Association swap meet. Schoeny was dispensing ice cream from the Sweet 2 Eat van in the park.
“This is a true community event,” said Eddie Sarita of the HNA. “We have about 20 vendors, and there is a wait list at the malasada tent. It’s not too big, but people have a chance to clean their houses.”
The Saturday swap meet hosted by HNA is the first of four planned for 2011. It just coincided with the flow of traffic from outrigger canoe crews who traversed the street to and from Hanama‘ulu Beach Park which was a transition point for the Garden Island Racing Canoe Association race.
The Sweet 2 Eat van was just one of several commercial vendors. Catholic Charities dispensed malasadas created from Alice Arruda’s recipe.
Dennis Schoeny said Tess, a home-school student, had the idea for the van dispensing primarily ice cream.
“Right now, we cover the areas from Hanama‘ulu to Kapahi,” he said. “We’re looking at adding more vans so we can do the beaches and have longer hours during the summer.”
Currently, Sweet 2 Eat rolls from 2:30 to 6 p.m. on weekdays, serving the Waialeale Estates and Kapahi areas on Mondays and Thursdays. Wailua Homesteads and Wailua Houselots Park is visited on Wednesdays, and the upper and lower areas of Hanama‘ulu get a Friday visit, said Mercedes Shoeny.
“We also are planning to be at the Kaua‘i Raceway Park for the drag races, and we do events like this swap meet as well as parties,” Mercedes Shoeny said. “Since we started in October, business has been doing pretty good and we’re trying to get another van to expand the service to beaches and have longer summer hours. Right now, we’re just doing the routes after school lets out.”
“This is one of the Catholic Charities’ fundraisers,” said Neal Rapozo, anchoring the tech tent and spinning country and western tunes between announcements of specials at the swap meet. “We are really lucky because we had a lot of help from the radio stations who didn’t charge us for announcing public service announcements. It was all free, and it helps.”
Former Kaua‘i Police Chief George Freitas was checking on the supply of malasadas, wanting to make a delivery to the radio stations, but the line remained constant.
Alicia Viquelia, trading her tour bus driver hat for a position behind the cash register, said the Christian Fellowship, located across the park above Ara’s Sakanaya, also relies on the swap meet as one of its major fundraisers for projects throughout the year.
The next Hanama‘ulu swap meet is scheduled from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., May 28. People wanting more information can call Sarita at 346-0090. Swap meets are also planned for Aug. 20 and Nov. 19.
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@kauaipubco.com.
