Newsletter for Week of September 17, 2025
Tim Hansen, President
Call to Order: President, Tim Hansen
Pledge of Allegiance: Sharon Scheele
Inspiration: Michelle Flemming; Not all storms come to disrupt your life - some storms come to clear your path.”
Trivia: Sept. 17th is National Manta Ray Day! Question: How big is the largest manta ray ever recorded? Answer: thirty feet with and weighing over 5,000 lbs.!
Guests: Wyatt & Emmett Sylvester (Steven Sylvester’s sons)
Birthdays:
- Michelle Flemming – September 15th
- Steve Jacunski – September 15th
Announcements:
- Thank you, cards, received from students at St. Joseph Interact Club.
- Thank you, letter, received from Food Basket
- St. Joseph School Invites you to Tent or Treat, Saturday, October 25th, 2025.
St. Joseph School Field. Trick or Treating, Food Concessions, Games & Activities.
For more info 808-935-4926
Club Related Announcements:
- 25th Annual Oktoberfest – Friday, September 26, 6-9pm General Admission $80
Needed- auction items and ticket sales! Deliver auction items to Aloha Pawz in Hilo or contact Mary Begier and or James Tyrin.
Volunteers needed for set-up on Thursday, September 25, 12noon-til pau.
Check in with Bryan Lindsey to sign up.
- HRYF – Foodland Sack ‘N Save – Give Aloha Sept. 1-30th. Donation Code: 77199
Jr. Achievement – Volunteers needed to teach 1st & 3rd graders at Waiakea Elementary School. Sign-up sheet passed around at meeting. Contact Sharon Scheele for more info.
- Peace Week – September 16-23, 2025 – Peace Pole Rededication on Wed. 9/17/25, 5pm– Kuhio Kalanianaole Rotary Park in Keaukaha.
- Update on Polio Pig – Insert your name with your money into the Polio Pig. Any member who donates to Polio Pig should fill out a form with your donation amount. When you do, you will receive a tax deduction and recognition points for Paul Harris status. Check with Virginia Juettner to find out how! Mahalo for the $1500 donation given anonymously!!
- Literacy Program – Books for Waiakeawaena Elementary School have arrived! Need club members to help deliver books and there is an opportunity for a photo shoot. Future date to follow!
- Multi-Club Foundation Luncheon – November 14th, 2025 Hilo Hawaiian downstairs banquet room. Focus on Rotary Project. For more information, contact Virginia Juettner.
Happy Dollars:
- $100 – Art Taniguchi – to RYHRYFh HRYF in honor his grandson’s birth, Rylan, weighed 8lbs, 2oz.
20 inches long!
- $20 - Michelle Flemming – My son passed his driver’s permit!
- $20 – Kevin Hopkins – I got my car back from the mainland. Car insurance dropped from
$3700/yr. to only $800!
- $10 – Alan Okinaka – At one time, we all had the distinction of being the youngest person
on the planet!
- $10 - Chester Cabral – Met a good friend and former associate with SBA in San
Francisco and attended a Giants/Dodgers game. His wish to see Shohei Ohtani
play came true!
- $10 – David DeLuz, Jr. – In Japanese culture, a child is one-year old when born.
- $5 – Sandra Wagner-Wright – Happy to be back in town!
- $2 – Tim Hansen – His husband’s successful double knee surgery!
Vocational Speaker: “JoB” Balberde-Kamalii
Who You?
JoB is a Social Worker and has extensive work experience in the areas of Foster training, Kuikahi Mediation, Kahi Mohala, and Suicide Prevention. JoB emphasized the care, welfare, and importance of caring for Children & Teens. She opened her talk, sharing her family values, her parents, growing up in Honomu near Akaka Falls, her faith and her experiences with a variety of positions she has held in social services. Presently, she holds a position at Kamehameha Schools in Keaau, Big Island. In her presentation, she stated, “we are a service-oriented community.” She shared the “Bowl of Light” from Tales of the Night Rainbow.
“Each child born has a birth, a Bowl of Perfect Light. If it tends to his light, it will grow in strength and he can do all things…swim with the sharks, fly with the birds…know and understand things. If however, he becomes envious or jealous, he drops a stone into his Bowl of Light and some of the Light goes out. Light and the stone cannot hold the same space. If he continues to put stones in the Bowl of Light, the Light will go out and he will become a stone. All he needs to do is turn the bowl upside down and the stones will fall away, and the Light will grow once more.”
JoB. Mahalo for being a member of our Rotary Club!
Door Prize Winner: Bryan Lindsey
4-Way Test: Sandra Wagner-Wright
Door Prize & Inspiration:
Oct. 1, 2025 – Jan Haraguchi-Abundo
Oct. 8, 2025 – Steven Sylvester
Oct. 15, 2025 – David DeLuz, Jr.
Oct. 22, 2025 – JoB
Oct. 29, 2025 – Art Taniguchi