Shara Bucasas, the improvised emcee for the Waimea Town Celebration, said on Saturday that the Makani Kaiwi family was having a great time at this year’s Waimea Town Celebration supported by the Hawaii Tourism Authority.
Makani started the week by winning the Times Supermarket Spam Musubi Eating Contest, wolfing down a dozen hot dogs at the Redondo’s Hot Dog eating contest, and how many pounds of Kauai Kim Chee during the Kim Chee eating contest? Two pounds? Four pounds?
But it didn’t end there as the ohana settled down to enter several different age brackets at the Super Duper Ice Cream Eating Contest at the two-day Hoolaulea at the site of the old sugar mill and beer garden. The hoolaulea closed the week of activities that started with a wine and culinary event, a luau honoring King Kaumualii with Kumu Hula Troy Lazaro and his halau, a film festival, the Ambassador of Aloha, and more.
Saturday marked the end of the preseason Waimea High School softball tournament, the Westside Basketball 3-on-3 hoops tournament, the fun run, the canoe races, and the family rodeo, which attracted hundreds of people to the town of Waimea throughout the week of activities.
Bucasas, who represented one of the Hawaiian Islands during the 2024 King Kamehameha celebration parade, discovered Roxy, this year’s queen, as she toured the food alley, which included offerings by the Kekaha Titans Pop Warner Association and the Waimea Bluejays baseball teams.
“Two ukulele were gifted to two West Kauai Hawaiian Charter Schools on behalf of the family of Kawika Medeiros, the overall winner of the 2025 Waimea Town Celebration Ukulele Contest,” said Liz Hahn, who was helping coordinate the ukulele contest. “Medeiros also received the Byron Hahn-Morin Kupaa Award for “Best Picker” of the ukulele contest.”
“In order to give back to the community that has embraced him and his ohana from West Oahu, Medeiros, and his wife chose to donate the two ukulele to the community,” Hahn said. “One ukulele is being awarded to KANAKA Charter School with their music kumu Benson Broyles, and the other ukulele given to Kawailoa Yaris, Music and Mana Maoli Kumu at Ke Kula Niihau O Kekaha.”
Hahn said Broyles was also the first-place winner in the Adult Category for this year’s contest, followed by Kawika Medeiros and Rheif Callahan.
In the Under 6- category, winners included Napea Stevens and Josephine Braun.
Silas Louis generously loaned his autographed, serialized Kala instrument to fairgoers to try and top the 7- to 9-grade division over Hehia Itchner and Kinoi Kanahele.
Moving to the special awards, Medeiros was selected as the overall winner and the winner of the Byron Hahn-Morin “Kupaaa” award for Best Picking, with Louis getting the nod for the Scotty’s Music Choice.
