• Senior Projects provide unique opportunity •
In my backyard • ‘Kaua‘i Knice’ •
Lifestyle changes necessary for your wallet
Senior Projects provide unique opportunity
At Kapa‘a High School the words “Senior Project” have different meanings for everyone. For teachers, it’s a yearlong project squeezed in to several lessons focusing on grammar, computer skills, public speaking, and much more. For counselors it means finding judges and making sure everything runs smoothly. For the students, it is a lot of time and effort to produce a paper and a fifteen minute presentation.
So why does the Kapa‘a High School staff require every senior to complete this project? The answer to this question could be seen this past week at the high school where the Senior Projects were being judged. The students that you would normally find there dressed in t-shirts were strolling through campus in business attire, shaking the hands of community members who donated their time to judge and hugging mentors who came just to support the students they have come to love. It is atmosphere filled with excitement and as a teacher I was blessed with the opportunity to witness it all.
This project is not just about the presentation, it is about a student finding a mentor that can teach them things that we can’t teach them in a classroom. It is about the child who never liked sitting in a classroom all of a sudden excited about learning. Most of all, it is about every student finding their passion and being inspired to want to be something more.
Congratulations seniors and thank you to all the people who make Senior Project possible!
Kara Kitamura, Kapa‘a
In my backyard
I join Howard Tolbe in supporting a youth facility for drug treatment on Kaua‘i, even if it winds up in my backyard, so to speak. Where ever it goes, it should be with upfront consultation with the community’s residents (and in spite of conflicting opinions) if majority support can be attained, that’s where it can and should be.
There have been instances where arrangements and/or decisions are made by a few to impose a proposal upon the community with no opportunity for the residents to have any say, so naturally, there is resistance and resentment. When and where discussions can take place to clarify questions and concerns and to weigh and consider the changes and challenges which may incur, the community can be pro-actively empowered and involved in the process from the beginning. It is when the community is left out in the cold through what are perceived to be “pre-arrranged deals” or hidden agendas that “NIMBY” becomes the outcry of retaliation.
Fair is fair.
Jose Bulatao, Jr., Kekaha
‘Kaua‘i Knice’
Minnesota has a saying, “Minnesota nice.” It applies to the friendly nature of the state and the people, or so they say.
Being from next door in Wisconsin, I think the folks of Kaua‘i deserve this reference far more than Minnesota. (Maybe Kaua‘i Knice?) Case in point: Our daughter took a surfing lesson from the Jake/Nelson team at Kelley’s Surfing on the beach by the Marriott.
Not only was it an excellent and reasonably priced lesson but the instructors were pleasant and helpful for a myriad of questions only a true mainlander could come up with. Now at this point you may say nothing beyond the ordinary here, its Kaua‘i kindness to tourists.
But here’s the un-ordinary part. Jake and Nelson are both unofficial and unpaid “safety supervisors” of Po‘ipu Beach in front of the Marriott. During our short stay I witnessed in two days, one of the Kelley instructors rescue a swimmer from cuts in the rocks, assist a surfer with a broken board and pull a tired swimmer in that went out from the bay too far.
Minnesota Nice? M’gosh, these people were performing life-saving, life-helping aid to hotel guests way past their capabilities, at no benefit to themselves other than being nice!
Now that’s Minnesota Nice at a new high — Kaua‘i Nice. And I bet there’s more of those Kelley Surfing-type people all over the island doing just nice things for us visitors from the mainland. Thank goodness they are here.
Glyn Thorman, Osceola, Wis.
Lifestyle changes necessary for your wallet
The predictions made at the first of the year have come true — oil is well over $100/ barrel and the experts suggest that the cost will continue to rise over the summer.
Regular gasoline on Kauai is $4.50/gal and headed toward $5.00. If your car gets 25-miles/gal, a trip from Lihu‘e to Princeville will cost about $5.00, one-way. For those with older less-efficient cars or trucks the travel costs increase to $7-10 one-way (That’s $14-20/ round trip!). If you live in Lihu‘e or the House Lots and work in Princeville and make the drive daily your travel cost may range from $2,300-3,800/year depending on your vehicle efficiency. This cost doesn’t account for the transportation costs of shopping or recreation, and of course the impact is doubled or tripled if you are a 2-3 car family.
What to do? Car pool! Ride the bus! (A yearly pass is only $240). Bike if you can or walk to work or school if possible.
On Kaua‘i, we also use oil to generate about 90 percent of our electricity, so get ready for your electric bills to increase even more. You can greatly affect this cost by using CFL light bulbs, drying clothes on a clothesline, installing a solar hot water heater and installing a photovoltaic system if circumstances allow. (About one-third of building permits issued last month were for solar hot water or electricity.)
Food costs are also escalating and planting a garden to grow your own food and shopping at the farmer’s markets are great ways to save precious dollars.
Life in the 21st century will not be just more of what we had in the 1990’s, but will require lifestyle changes and a move toward sustainability which is definitely within our grasp.
Douglas Wilmore, Kilauea
