About 60 first-graders from Koloa School and their cadre of teachers and parent volunteers, got to make their own lunches, Thursday during a field trip to Domino’s pizza in the Hokulei Village Shopping Center.
“They get to eat the pizza they each created,” said Jason Mayeshiro, one of the partners for Domino’s. “We do this every couple of months, or whenever we get inquiries from teachers or adult leaders of a community group.”
The Koloa School students spent their morning touring the Domino’s facilities while their pizzas cooked after the tiny hands pounded, slapped and stretched the dough into pizzas they wanted to eat.
“They do birthday parties here, too,” said Laurie Medeiros, the mother of a student Arianna Medeiros, who worked her dough into the proper consistency. “She had a birthday party, and they do an amazing job with the party.”
Mayeshiro said the large dining area was built for such occasions.
“We love being involved with the community,” Mayeshiro said. “A lot of the students here are customers, and we love having them here as a class. We helped sponsor the recent Isle Hoops Classic, too, where we provided pizza for all the players and coaches involved in the basketball tournament. We love doing this — having groups of people meet here so they can enjoy themselves.”
The field trip was more than an exercise in making and eating pizzas, as the students gained hands-on experience in the job of being a pizza artist, or even working in a pizza parlor, cheering on a Domino’s associate who flipped his dough in the air to stretch it for final fitting.
The aroma of baked pizza marked the serious portion of the field trip — eating.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
