Happy Camper for January 7, 2022

Dennis Fujimoto/The Garden Island

Daryl Kaneshiro pilots his ranch’s Kawasaki Mule/UTV across the Waimea River ford to get supplies provided by the county to those who had no access out of the valley. Kaneshiro also provided a satellite phone for emergency purposes, and assess how to get a hospital bed around the landslide blockage for Carla Dusenberry’s dad. He was able to accomplish the hospice mission by Wednesday afternoon and left the Kawasaki Mule/UTV at the site for use in transporting emergency supplier and personnel for the elderly that had no way of leaving the area.

Dennis Fujimoto/The Garden Island

The Kaua‘i High School girls basketball team perform their alma mater following its 57-32 win over Waimea, Wednesday. The Red Raiders host Kapa‘a High School for two games, Friday at the Kaua‘i High School gym.

Basilio “Coach Bunga” Fuertes has another seedling distribution coming up in the next couple of weeks with ‘Ele‘ele Elementary School student Carmila Udarbe near the entrance to Gather Federal Credit Union in the ‘Ele‘ele Shopping Center…watch for it!

Coach Bunga just got through transplanting some 300 eggplants (Nitta variety University of Hawai‘i long purple) since Carmila was back in school following winter break.

Kekaha Elementary School teacher Tori Kagawa is just getting excited about boys soccer starting next week…what? How did Kekaha School get that big rise in COVID-19 cases?

Kudos to Lily Beth Aguilar and Faith Mendoza of the Lihu‘e Pharmacy ‘ohana for facing those long (!!!) COVID-19 testing lines. Kudos to St. Catherine teacher Chris Harm for helping to direct traffic while waiting for his test! Those girls are the troopers for enduring the not-nice words, frustrations, and no-ALOHA, and still doing tests seven days a week, no lunch breaks, and long (13-hour days?) hours…definitely hero material.

Coach Bunga was at the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation girls basketball game (thank heaven it was on the same route as the KIF soccer opener that was canceled at the Hanapepe Stadium!) representing Gutsy Okada who is the hero and motivation for the Waimea team coached by Natalie Mata (great job, holding a 14-11 lead following the first quarter!)…now, how about a team shirt (“Wen da game?”) for Coach Bunga?

OK, more confusion (they canceled Monday night’s girls basketball game: second one, this week! – because the Bernice Hundley Gym had wet floors). How do we do the parade celebrating the Kapa‘a football team (they made history by beating Kamehameha-Maui in the rains at Farrington High School. Dr. Monty Downs said the Farrington gym had water on the floors, too), or the pivotal girls basketball game when William Aki’s girls go up against the Red Raiders?

The choice is yours!

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Dennis Fujimoto can be reached at 245-0453 or at dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.

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