Mufi's Message - July 6, 2017

The Kauai Chamber of Commerce held their 2nd Quarter Membership Meeting on June 29 at the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa, sponsored by the Family and Friends of Agriculture, in partnership with HLTA and our Kauai Chapter. As I mentioned in the last Mufi’s message, this is the second time that we have engaged with the Kauai Chamber in supporting one of their meetings, the first being in 2015. That year we partnered with Kaiser Permanente for the Kauai Chamber’s annual membership meeting at the Kauai Marriott Resort.
 
HLTA enthusiastically supports the University of Hawai‘i’s student-athletes and the tremendous pride and honor they consistently bring to our state and people, not only in competition but as exceptional representatives of our islands. We made a $10,000 contribution at the event, with the support of Family and Friends of Agriculture  to the UH athletic department for their seven sports programs. Athletic Director David Matlin, Assistant Athletic Director Lois Manin, and Associate Athletic Director of External Affairs Joel Matsunaga attended the event, as well as coaches from all seven of UH’s sports programs: Football Nick Rolovich, Men’s Basketball Eran Ganot, Women's Basketball Laura Beeman, Men's Volleyball Charlie Wade, Women's Beach Volleyball Jeff Hall, Men’s Baseball Mike Trapasso, and Women's Softball Deirdre (Dee) Wisneski, an assistant coach from Kauai.
 
This was the largest gathering of UH coaches in any one place at any one time! People were treated to opportunities to sit, mix, and mingle with the coaches, and were given 25% discounts for UH merchandise. All proceeds benefited the UH Athletics program. Joining myself  as we made the $10,000 commitment were former athletes of UH, including Mayor Bernard Carvalho, who played football, and Council Vice-Chair Ross Kagawa, who played baseball.  Also joining me to make the presentation to Athletic Director David Matlin were HLTA Kauai Chapter Chair Jim Braman, incoming Kauai Chapter Chair Ike Cockett, as well as Stephanie Iona of Dow AgroSciences and Laurie Yoshida of DuPont Pioneer, who are both members of HLTA’s Agriculture Committee. Kudos to Stephanie and Laurie for working very hard in helping to execute a very successful event!
 
After reconciling the donations from each island, we are excited to announce that the 39th annual Charity Walk raised a total of $2.26 million! We reflected the new total in a mahalo ad in The Garden Island newspaper and West Hawaii Today, both affiliates of Oahu Publications Inc. Both were published this past Sunday, July 2. We also released a mahalo ad in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser several weeks ago when our total was hovering right above $2.24 million. Mahalo to everyone for contributing until the very end of our 2017 campaign! Now the question is, how can we top our record at next year’s 40th anniversary event? 2018 Charity Walk Chair Glenn Vergara and the committee I know will be up to the task!