PAY IT FORWARD

This past March, the 15th Annual Honolulu Jewish Film Festival screened films that celebrate Jewish culture from March 4-26, and the Honolulu Museum of Art Spalding House also held its monthly "Bank of Hawaii Family Sunday" event to give children and parents another opportunity to learn about Jewish art, stories, and culture.

A child visitor participating in the Jewish-themed activities and creating a mask.

While talking with Gloria Katz, a leader of one of the event's Yiddish activities, I learned about the importance of teaching Jewish culture. She shared that before the Holocaust, millions of Jewish people spoke Yiddish. However, after the Holocaust, there was a huge decline in the number of Yiddish-speaking Jewish people. Since many people like Gloria believe that languages are reflections of different cultures and backgrounds, Gloria hopes to share that Jewish culture is not something to be suppressed, but to be celebrated, by keeping Yiddish alive.

As I watched the curiosity and fascination these kids had while listening to stories and creating pieces of art, I was so glad that I decided to participate in and help out at this special Family Sunday event.  It's my hope that the children and their families also learned something about Jewish culture and Yiddish that day so that Gloria's wish will come to fruition.

Do you enjoy making crafts?  What about chatting with friends, doing some quick community service, eating food while you're at it, and jamming out to music?  If even one of these points sounds appealing to you, consider joining an Academy art club called ImageNation.

Rebecca "Becca" Haynes '17, ImageNation Club Founder and President, kindly answered a few questions when I inquired about her club.

Back when Becca first entered the Academy as a freshman, she perused the club offerings in hopes of finding an art club.  Since the Punahou Academy offers such a wide variety of clubs, Becca thought that there had to be a club focused on drawing, painting, and other art forms.

To Becca's dismay, she was unable to find the club she'd hoped for.  With encouragement from friends, Becca decided to found her own club: ImageNation.

Becca acknowledged that "the goal of this club is to provide a relaxing, no-judgement space for anyone and everyone to create art." ImageNation members can also explore new styles and mediums of art, aside from traditional styles of arts and crafts many are familiar with.

ImageNation members revamped a cart for Kapiolani Medical Center with colorful paintings.

ImageNation also has a major community service component as many of the art projects made by the club are donated to the community. Becca stated that "many of the activities that set ImageNation on the path of service were founded and organized by Ms. Hail."

Ms. Hail, ImageNation's club advisor, often presents community service requests she receives from the Luke Center or colleagues to the club as suggestions for group activities. Recently, Becca has also started to play a major role in incorporating community service-based art projects into ImageNation's agenda.


Some recent "big projects" for the club include painting two carts for the Kapiolani Medical Center's Children's Wing, creating a wall-length drawing of a girl and boy reading displayed in Cooke Library, and painting a mural for the Easter Seals Autism Center.

I've had the pleasure of attending a gathering for ImageNation a few months ago. The meeting's activity was to create Halloween cards for the Kapiolani Medical Center as tray favors for patients.

At the club meeting, there was music, tasty guacamole and chips, crayons, colored pencils, watercolor, cardboard paper, other art supplies scattered everywhere, and lots of talk and laughter in the Luke Center Lilypond Room. At the end of the gathering, not only was there a sizeable pile of cards to donate to the hospital, but big smiles on members' faces as a result of being able to distress, catch up with friends, and give back to the community all at once.


The club gathers roughly once a month for 90 minutes after school, often on Tuesdays. If anyone is interested in learning more about ImageNation, you can contact Becca at rhaynes17@punahou.edu.

What does the word "we" mean to you? To some, it is when the hearts of many beat in unison and many people experience the same event together. To others, "we" can mean letting yourself go and losing yourself in something bigger. During the annual Memorial Day Lantern Floating Festival held on Oahu's south shore by Lantern Floating Hawaii, an average of 50,000 people come together to find a connection with those in the past, present, and future.

Memorial Day is a holiday during which Americans celebrate and honor those who have fallen in sake of his or her country. In Hawaii, the tradition has been modified slightly in an effort to encompass Hawaii's uniquely diverse population. The result is the Lantern Floating Festival. During this special event, people from a multitude of backgrounds and cultures come together to decorate paper lanterns with messages and to send them off into the gentle waves of the ocean.

Through the Luke Center, I volunteered to help with preparations for the 2016 Lantern Floating Festival. I arrived at the Shinnyo-en building in Downtown, Honolulu not knowing what I was getting myself into, but my worries were quickly washed away upon meeting all of the kind, hardworking volunteers and workers as well as the Punahou Key Club.

I was assigned the simple task of sticking slips of paper with the names and messages of the deceased onto the sides of pre-made lanterns. All the while, I conversed with other volunteers, sharing laughs and passing stories. After a short snack break, I was then asked to help write names and messages onto the slips of paper. Some were just names, while others were heartfelt messages, inside jokes, or even poems that people wished to share with their loved ones. Meanwhile, at the table next to me, volunteers were busy folding colorful paper cranes -- symbols of peace and prayers.


Although I have never attended the Lantern Floating Festival myself, I'm glad I was able to help out even a little by volunteering with the preparations. Everyone I met that day was very nice and talkative, and the work wasn't too taxing or difficult. I was able to feel connected in some way to the larger community. Whether you have lost someone special in your life, or just want to help out next year, the Lantern Floating Festival will accept you with open arms and smiles.