2013 Punahou Carnival

The last week of January - well it was another busy, breath-taking one.  It was pre-carnival week so that meant the Punahou School campus was abuzz with activity.  Julianne's Junior class was in charge of the Carnival & she was one of the booth chairs for the Haku Lei booth - a perfect fit for her creative abilities.  During the pre-Carnival week, both Julianne & I were busy with preparations.  The Haku Lei volunteers were preparing the materials to make the Haku Lei with & Juli did so well in her leadership position.  I'm so proud of how much she has grown as a young lady.

Julianne starting her haku lei

I helped co-chair the White Elephant Housewares booth.  We had some great divisions heads - Lisa, Dana, Vince, Connie, & Jean; booth chairs - Michelle & Sean, Christine, Allene & Jay, Mieko, Trina, & Kinue - a wonderful Houseware co-chair with me; & student div heads & booth chairs - including Hannah & Jonas & Allyssa (those who I worked with the most) & so many others,  who put in so much work & effort throughout the year in preparing everything that was to be sold.  In addition to occasionally going to the tank to help with the sorting, pricing, & boxing housewares, my part was to make phone calls to some of the awesome volunteers who helped staff the White Elephant booth.  I looked forward to helping coordinate & run the booth on Friday & Saturday, Feb. 8 & 9.  The day went so well & everything really ran so smoothly.  Thanks to Kinue & the operations staff - we even got to have a reconfigured entrance to help with logistics during the crazy, busy opening shift & "staff lounge" to provide for a relaxing place for everyone to be able to chill, rest, & recuperate from the physically & mentally demanding 2 days of non-stop activity.  This amazing event & enterprise that Punahou School's junior class puts together in order to help provide Financial Aid to over 400 students is such a great cause to be a part of.  I'm glad I'm connected with this wonderful community.  Matter of fact, I've been attending or helping out with the Carnival ever since my husband, Mario started working at Punahou School over 24 years ago.  Since our children were old enough to walk & ever since they began attending Punahou (Jayson as a kindergartener & Julianne as a freshman) it's been a Gonzaga family tradition that my children, my husband, & I have had the awesome privilege to be a part of.  We started off attending the carnival buying lots & lots of stuff at the White Elephant booth, Books booth, Treasures, & others. We've spent many hours, even whole weekends, enjoying the games, riding rides (at least for the kids :)) & eating all the wonderful carnival food like malasadas, chicken plate, Hawaiian plate, nachos, smoothies, noodles, gyros, portuguese bean soup, taco salad, & who knows what else we stuffed ourselves with.  This year, Jayson got to be his independent self & spent time with his good friends - Prashanth, Colin, Karuna, & Neil.  Now, with Jayson being an eighth grader, Mario's annual work handling the parking, my participation & leadership as one of the White Elephant booth chairs & Julianne's participation & leadership as one of the Haku Lei Booth chairs & Junior Class (Class of 2014) member, our involvement has come full circle.

This was truly a memorable Carnival for our family.  And to top it off, Julianne was able to make some memories that, thankfully, were archived on video. Gotta love the usage of contemporary media that helps us never forget those precious moments.

You can find her featured in a few videos that Punavision put together:


Haku Lei Booth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si2D0lgyquo
Starting at 3:00, Julianne & the other Haku Lei booth chairs share about the preparations, types of lei available, pricing, & other interesting tidbits about the beautiful traditions surrounding the Haku Lei Booth.


Highlights from the Video Booth:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKuhezUQL2E
You can find her at 1:46 along with the other Haku Lei booth chairs having a little fun.

Punahou Juniors Celebrate following a Successful 2013 Carnival:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9qvl8q3HcI
To finish things off, the junior class got together to celebrate & sang "Better Together" by Jack Johnson.  And it's so true- We're so much better when we're together.  Julianne can be seen singing & celebrating at 2:05, 2:58, & 3:49.

There's so much more that can be said about these moments.
Ones that just take your breath away...