HBRC meets every Wednesday at the Grand Naniloa Hotel in the Palm Room at 0700.
Hilo Bay Rotary Club Newsletter for the week of March 30, 2025
Steven Sylvester, President
From the meeting of March 26, 2025
President Steven convened the meeting at 7 am.
Guests: Patrick Bodell, Jeanne Balberde Kamalii, Tim Flynn, Sandy Tokuuke and Dr. Michelle Goya Ebersole.
Inspiration: Mary Begier offered the following words: “The food you eat can either the safest and most perfect form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.” Ann Wigmore.
Announcements:
- Richard Cunningham announced that the HRYF contributions were $4,198 and the U of H Foundation contributions were $8,200. U of H still has a way to go even though Mary Begier offered to fund the balance of the required $10,000.
- President Steven announced the dates for the D 5000 conference. They are 5/30-6/1. It will be held at the Ala Maona Hotel in Honolulu. The D 5000 Foundation event was tonight at the Woman’s Center.
- Virginia Juettner announced that Benson Medina and friends were supplying the music for the Foundation Event tonight. The entrance fee cover pupus and is $20.99, BYOB.
- Mary Begier informed the members that the Friend of the Children’s Justice Center fundraiser was coming and that the Center had lost its funding for the two paid staff positions. They needed to sell five more tables at $1,500 apiece. The event is on April 12th.
Guest Speaker: Our guest speaker was Dr. Michelle Goya Ebersole of the U. of Hawaii, Hilo teacher training program. She has been at the program since she earned her Ph. D from the U. of Arizona 15 years ago. Michelle opened her remarks by stating her ancestry in Hilo. Her grandparents had two businesses in Hilo that were both destroyed tsunamis in 1946 and 1960 before moving to Kilauea St where they started their 3rd and last business. (Dwayne remembered that her grandmother was responsible for putting the egg in loco mocho making the dish we know today.)
Michelle examined the importance of small moments in teaching literacy. Reading consists of two areas—language comprehension and word recognition. The former consists of background knowledge, vocabulary, language structures, verbal reasoning and literacy knowledge that are integrated into learning while the latter are mostly word recognition skills. Activities such as reading aloud as we did at Hilo Union Elementary School have profound impacts on the children and their success with literacy because learning is a social process shaped by culture and language.
Meeting invocations and raffle responsibilities for April:
April 2 is Tim H
April 9 is Lorraine D
April 16 is Kim K
April 23 is Sandra W
April 30 is Dwayne M
Speakers for April
April 2nd Ashley Kierkiewicz Na Leo TV
