HANAPEPE — Hundreds of people flowed through the gates of the Fourth annual Hanapepe’s Biggest Little Carnival, which unfolded over the weekend in the area between Hanapepe Stadium and adjoining community baseball fields.
Although designed as a fundraising effort for the Hanapepe Pop Warner Association and the Hanapepe Youth Baseball Association, the carnival has risen to a new level of fundraising efforts.
“I’ve got to eat,” said Kelvin Moniz, a Kaua‘i football official. “I did officiating at three games this morning, and I only have so much time before the next game.”
Moniz scoured the food booths that were manned by the various associations from the Kaua‘i Pop Warner Football League — the parent league for Hanapepe Pop Warner — as well as the Waimea High School softball program and a combined cheerleading group — all needing funds for its respective programs.
Other Waimea High School clubs were involved in offering carnival-type games and activities.
In addition to the food booths, the carnival featured a program of live entertainment on stage and Fun N K’wazy rides, including its newest Meltdown. There was also a tent filled with craft vendors, many with connections to community sporting programs.
“This works out really good,” said the Iguchi ‘ohana that manned one of the vendor booths. “Our son’s game started at 8 a.m., and the carnival doesn’t open until 10 a.m. This allowed us to watch his game — he did really good for the Kekaha Titans — and still take care of the carnival.”
Other booths benefited high school clubs like the Kaua‘i High School Japanese Club, which is involved in fundraising for a class trip to Japan.
Jules of Da ‘Aina was not as fortunate as Julie Demond’s son, who was involved in the American Youth Soccer Organization season-ending championship match in Kapa‘a.
Deep Fried Spam Musubi is one of the foods available at Kapa‘a High School athletic home events. The morsel was introduced to the westside through the work being done by the Kapa‘a Eagles Pop Warner Association as a way of fundraising to help recover from a fire that destroyed the association’s storage shed earlier in the year.
“We’re always looking for ways to make this better,” said Alden Pablo of the Hanapepe Pop Warner. “We’ll be back again around this time next year.”
