Rotary Club of Wahiawa-Waialua

District Governor
Eric Kaler

Volume 7 Issue 28 – February 27th, 2020

“Making a Difference in our Local and Global Communities”

President
Alexander “Alex” Kanamu

The strength of our Club lies in its members

BoardMeeting
Service Above Self – Making a Difference

February is Peacebuilding andConflict Prevention Month
8,000 Kilometers to Peace

The Alchehade Family

Rotary members in a small town of Nova
Scotia, Canada, took action to bring two
families from war-torn Syria to their country,
where the refugees are starting a new life.
By Ryan Hyland Produced by Andrew ChudzinskiThis explosion was close – much closer than the others
that had rattled the village on the outskirts of Homs,Syria, where Sultanah Alchehade lived with her fouryoung children. This one hit the school next door,
blasting out one of the walls of their house.
Alchehade grabbed the children and ran into the night
and the choking smoke and dust. A neighbor helped
her carry her three-year-old twin boys, Mounzer andKaiss; another drove the pickup truck they allclambered into. Over the next several days, as bombs
continued to fall, the family – including daughters
Kawthar, age six, and Roukia, a baby – took refuge in

Rotary – 115 Years of Service to the World!

Editor – PP Geoff Horvatha nearby forest, sleeping under the trees as Sultanah
tried to figure out their next move.
In neighboring Lebanon, Sultanah’s husband, Mazen,
frantically tried to contact his wife. For years, Mazen
had shuttled back and forth across the border every
few weeks to do construction work on high-risebuildings in Beirut. While the jobs provided an income
for his family, he says, the separation was hard. But
their situation had just gotten much harder.
With the Syrian civil war now engulfing his village,Mazen couldn’t return. And it would be four months
before his wife and children could cross into Lebanon.
Eventually, the family was reunited. They were alive.
But they were refugees, seeking asylum in any country
that would take them, hoping to get far away from theviolence that had driven them, along with millions ofother Syrians, into foreign lands.
The Alchehade family registered with the UnitedNations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), theagency responsible for resettling Syrian refugees, andwaited. They were still in Lebanon nearly three years
later.
Meanwhile, 8,000 kilometers away, Rotarians in thesmall town of Amherst, Nova Scotia, were watching
images of Syrian refugees on television and looking forways to help.

A new culture
In September 2015, members of the Rotary Club ofAmherst were thinking about their next international
project. Over the years, the group has helped buildand equip a school in South Africa, provided
educational materials to students in the Bahamas, andraised funds for disaster-stricken areas around theThe Rotary Club of
Wahiawa-Waialua

world, but their thoughts turned to Syria as the plightof refugees dominated the news.
11 milSyrians have been displaced since 2011
2.9 mil
Syrian refugees have settled in Turkey
40,000+
Syrian refugees have resettled in Canada sinceNovember 2015
884,000
Syrians have applied for asylum in Europe“We as Rotarians couldn’t ignore what we werewatching each and every day,” says Ron Wilson, asemiretired civil engineer. “Families dying while making
their journey to Europe or other places. Families
desperately trying to flee war and, sadly, their homes.
The heart-wrenching images were the impetus for ourclub to do something.”
Rebuilding a Life
Amherst is a sleepy Canadian town of about 9,000
that lies on the eastern boundary of the picturesqueTantramar Marshes, one of the largest salt marshes on
the Atlantic coast. The streets surrounding its five-blocklong main thoroughfare are lined with ornate Victorianhomes. The nearest fast-food and grocery chains are
two miles away.
Rotary member Ann Sharpe helps Kawthar navigate
the ice rink during the family’s first experience with ice
skating, a national pastime of Canada.
While many Syrian refugees prefer to settle in Torontoor Montreal where there are more resources and jobs,
the Alchehades wanted a smaller community, like theone where they had lived in Syria. There, they had land
where they grew almonds and olives, and raised cows,goats, and sheep.
The family arrived in Amherst with what they could
carry. Most of the furnishings in their new home, a two-RI President: Mark Daniel MaloneyDistrict: Eric Kaler
Asst. Dist. Govt: Sonya Mendez
Club President: Alex Kanamu
PP: Lilette Subedi
President Elect: Keoni Ahlo
Exec Secretary: Alison Kanamu
Recording Secretary: Jackie Barnes
Treasurer: Kate Butts
Sergeant-at-Arms: Dr. Carver Wilcox
Asst. Sergeant-at-Arms: AustinKanamu

Rotary – 115 Years of Service to the World!

bedroom apartment in a modest house on a street thatdead-ends at the marshes, are donated.
The four children are energetic and open with one
another and the Rotary members who visit.
They love playing in the snow and singing the alphabet
song, which they quickly learned from English tutors
who regularly visit their home. They sing it while
watching TV, while playing outside, when guests comeover.
The Rotary club helped connect Mazen with a job at
Fundy Landscaping, which does stonework and builds
retaining walls and decks. There, he is using the skills
he learned doing construction in Lebanon.
“He does great work,” says business owner Peter
Michels. “I don’t need to tell him anything twice.
Everything we ask him to do, he runs with it. His skills
and work ethic are very impressive.”
Michels, whose parents immigrated to Canada afterWorld War II, says he sees a little of himself in Mazen
and his family.
Each week, Sultanah and her three youngest children
visit Maggie’s Place, a family resource center in townthat provides social and educational programs toparents and their kids. There, the Alchehades get achance to interact with other families in the area, acrucial step to their integration into the community.
“Everything you had is completely gone,” he says.
“Trying to start a new life in a place where you don’tknow if you’re going to be accepted or if you’re going
to be rejected. I try to see things through his eyes. That’s
probably what my family went through – hoping thatwhen they came to this country, there would besomebody to help them.”
The town has rallied behind the refugee families, withteachers volunteering to tutor the kids and dentists
offering free care. Mazen has earned his driver’s
license, and Sultanah has joined other mothers in thecommunity for cooking classes, even leading a class on
preparing Syrian dishes.

The kids are learning to ice skate, Canada’s nationalpastime. These are small steps in the long process of
integration that the club hopes will help them find theirplace in Canadian society. “We want them to be able
to help improve this community and the country,” says
Wilson.
The Alchehades don’t know if they will ever return toSyria. But right now, Canada is their home. This is where
they want to see their children grow up.
While Mazen still struggles with English, he has notrouble finding the words to describe his dream for hischildren: “I want them to be pioneers.”
To view the 8,000 Kilometers to Peace, click on thisurl: https://youtu.be/pAO2D3WDg3Y

Did You Know?
… that a group of Rotarians can combine their points
to make Recognition? The minimum transfer is 100points and in denominations of 100 points.
… that the Transfer Recognition request form can be
downloaded from www.rotary.org… that THE ROTARY FOUNDATION is RotaryInternational’s only charity?

Hawaii Rotary YouthFoundation (HRYF)
We had a total of 11 students apply for the HRYF
scholarship. We interviewed 9 students because 2
failed to show up and failed to answer their cellphones. As a result of our interviews, we selected ourClub’s Top Scholar ($5,000), and three Club-level
Scholars ($1,000). Below, we introduce our Club’s Top
Scholar and our three Club-level Scholars.

Alison Kanamu

PP Geoff Horvath

Oli – No Oli today

Mikiala Ng

Outside D5K
None
Within D5K
None

Mikiala Ng was selected as our Club’s Top Scholar.
She was only one of two candidates that knew anything
about Rotary International and our Club. Mikiala has a4.28 GPA and was involved in school and community
projects. This is one of the things that all these Scholars
have in common. It amazes me that they have time to
do anything else!
Mikiala has been accepted to attend Yale University,
the only one in her family that will be attended an Ivy
League College. She has 7 brothers and sisters, two of
which are attending college.
Mikiala is currently attending Kamehameha Schools,
Kapalama Campus.

No visitors

Rotary – 115 Years of Service to the World!

The Rotary Club of
Wahiawa-Waialua

Mikiala receives a $5,000 scholarship and is eligible
for one of two $10,000 scholarships, one the SullySullivan, the other Joanna Sullivan Scholarship
Mikiala will be working towards a Marine
Biology/Oceanography degree, with a postsecondary education in environment studies, which will
enable her to both pursue here passions and serve hercommunity
Mikiala will be attending the Area Interview on March
7th.
Three other students were awarded our Club-level
Scholarship of $1,000 each. They are:her love of her Nana, who had major medical
conditions, she will be pursuing a career in geriatrics.
She believes by taking this course of action, she will bea benefit and contributor to Hawaii’s health andwellbeing. Like our other two Scholars, Lindsay spends
many of her hours participating in school andcommunity activities.

Terry Seguritan

Liam “Kula” Van Asperen

Liam “Kula” Van Asperen, attending Waialua, is on
the robotics team, and was one of the volunteers at ourrecent Al Wonder Christmas party. He was one of thesong leaders and did a fantastic job of entertaining
our special guests. Kula spends most of his time helping
others in his community. He has a great outlook on life,
has a positive attitude and outlook on live andmankind.
Kula has been accepted at Liberty University, and will
be majoring in Cyber Security as well as business.
Again, Kula is active in his school and community.

Terry Seguritan is currently attending Kahuku HS andhas been accepted by the College of Idaho. Terry was
one of a twin interviewing for our HRYF scholarship. Heis a heard worker in school and within the community,
giving up selfless hours, umpiring school ball games andcompleting tasks so others do not have to. He said, thisrelieves others of these tasks, allowing them to be homewith their families for a few more valuable hours.
Though his hard work, he made Kahuku’s honor roll. Hewill be taking courses in Computer Science and plans
to come back and work in schools, mentoring students
to reach their full potential. Like the rest, Terry is active
in his school and community.
A special thanks to PP Lilette Subedi, Dr. Lynn Goya,
Kate Butts, and Marie Abatayo for assisting in theinterviews. Each will comment on their experiences in
the Program section of the Weekly.

Recognitions for the week ending March 1st,2020.

Jackie Barnes celebrated her birthday on February
None
None

Spouse’s Birthday
Lindsay Sasaki

Lindsay Sasaki attends Hawaii Baptist Academy. She
has been accepted by Creighton University, Seattle
Pacific University, and Westmont College! Because ofRotary – 115 Years of Service to the World!

None

Anniversaries

None

ROTARY MINUTE

Singing!
NoneHI
Jackie Barnes gave a HI $5 – unable to decipher
handwriting! But, it was a good one!!
Alison Kanamu gave a HI $5 for Dr. Lynn Goya
completing our HRYF video on our ClubRunner web site.
Kate Butts gave a HI $5 for all the hard PP Geoff
Horvath put in, in processing applications and setting
up the interviews for HRYF.
Derek Conselva gave a HI $5 because he had to leave
the meeting early.
PP Geoff Horvath gave a HI $5 in recognition of PP
Lilette Subedi, Dr. Lynn Goya, Kate Butts, and Marie
Abatayo, for their outstanding support during theinterviewing phase of this year’s HRYF Scholarshipprogram.
President Alex gave two HI $5’s. The first was for ourmembers helping him when he has challenges, “It’s nicehaving another family.” If we need anything, Alex said
we can call him first and he will do what he can.
The second HI $5 was for hosting three fifth-gradeclasses at his “Bullit Hatcheries” located in the former
Tamura’s Market warehouse on California Avenue,
Wahiawa.

Singing at Rotary meetings is a long-standing tradition
that dates back to 1905, when Rotarian Harry L.
Ruggles introduced it at the Rotary Club of Chicago by
jumping onto a chair and urging everyone to join him
in song.
Singing quickly became a tradition at their meetings
and the practice spread to other Rotary clubs as theywere chartered. Ruggles even published his Book ofSongs which was a collection of patriotic songs andstandards deemed appropriate for Rotary meetings.
He followed this with the songbook, Songs for theRotary Club, in 1920. Rotary International Conventions
featured Walter R. Jenkins of the Rotary Club ofHouston as the official convention song leader from
1931 through 1966.
The August 1959 edition of Rotarian magazine notedthat “there are probably more singing Rotary Clubs
than non-singing.”
Sadly (my opinion at least), most Rotary clubs havelong since abandoned the tradition. Reasons arevaried, but mainly it’s been along the lines of “that’s
what they did in the old days,” or “singing at a Rotary
meeting is a waste of time.”

Whitmore Annex warehouse

No Trip Report

Rotary – 115 Years of Service to the World!

No Correspondence

The Rotary Club ofWahiawa-Waialua

they will crumble into dust; but if we work
upon immortal minds…we are engravingon those tablets something that willbrighten all eternity.”— Arch C. Klumph, December 1928
Mar 5 - Liza Ryan Gill – Campaign Manager, Flavors
Hook Kids Hawai’i- Vaping and our Keiki
Mar 19 - Slava Slavik – Toastmasters - Division A
Director overseeing 16 clubs on Oahu and Maui.

29 Mar – Annual Wakai-Wilkinson Golf Tournament
Scholarship fundraiser. More information will be
coming out in the next few weeks.
20-26 Apr – Trip to Kyoto, Japan for celebration ofthe Rakushyu Club’s anniversary.
Apr 25 – Rotary @ Work Day – We are encouraged
to complete a club project or a joint project withanother clubMay 28 – Hawaii Blood Bank blood drive – Dot’s
parking lot
Jun 6-10 – Rotary International Convention
Jun 8 – Host Night – RI Convention event – 6-9 pm, atthe Waikiki Shopping Plaza. Parking is nearby at $10
for the night, Cost is $45 per member.
Reminder – Airport Greeters on June 6 2020. Please
see Alison for sign-up as slots are still available. Each
shift is three hours. We will be at the International
Arrivals to greet Rotarians from around the world.

No announcements“The Rotary Foundation is not to build
monuments of brick and stone. If we work
upon marble, it will perish; if we work on
brass, time will efface it; if we rear temples
Rotary – 115 Years of Service to the World!

After its foundation was fixed, how many years will ittake for the Leaning Tower of Pisa to be perfectly
straight/upright?

Monthly Board
Meeting
The meeting was called to order after completing Clubbusiness. The Minutes from last month’s meeting wereapproved
After the minutes were approved, President Alex
requested an update on HRYF and the recent
interviews we completed.
PP Geoff started it off by telling the Club, just as inprevious years, it was difficult selecting our Club’s Top
Scholar. All the students that applied were outstanding
and presented themselves well during the interviews.
After the dust settled, we ended up with 11 applicants.
Out of the 11 that were scheduled for interviews, twowere no shows. Attempts were made to contact themwith the cell phone numbers provided on theapplication. After numerous calls, and no answers, they
were removed from the list of candidates (a harddecision). We interviewed two other students on
Tuesday and Wednesday, to meet the student’s busy
schedules.

After giving PP Geoff President Alex asked each of
the interview panel members to give their impression of
the interview and students that were interviewed.
PP Lilette Subedi said it was an outstanding job by theinterview panel. We had excellent applicants. The
best was, those students that know about Rotary andour Club. We had gender equality in selecting twofemale and two male students, from public schools andprivate schools, as well as applicants from Waialua
and Leilehua High Schools.
Kate Butts said it was touching and how much she
enjoyed being a part of the panel.
President Alex mentioned how awesome our criteria
was, mentoring those students that didn’t research
Rotary or our Club, asking about future plans (comingback), and strongly suggesting they look for a Rotaract
Club at the university/college they will be attending.
Marie Abatayo – This was Marie’s first time
participating in the interviews. “Excellent! For thosestudents that couldn’t tell us about Rotary or our Club
“raised a red flag” and were not as highly scored as
those that did.
Dr. Lynn Goya – This was Dr. Goya’s first experiencein participating with interviewing HRYF applicants.
These students are our “next generation.” “It was a littleoverwhelming.” All the students were “awesome!” “Itwas hard to choose.”
Treasurer’s Report. We are way in the black! Kateput a motion in to fund 3 $1,000 scholarships to thethree Club Level Scholars. The motion was seconded
and voted on to release $3,000 for these students.
Golf Tournament Fundraiser. We still need teams,prizes, grab bags (Marie Abatayo is working on them).
We discussed future plans to hold the golf tournament
at either Mililani Golf Course, or Leilehua Golf course,
and maybe having it during the week.
District and 2020 RI Conference. We went over eventsand volunteer requirements. If members haven’t signed
up for either the District Conference or the InternationalConference, do so! The D5K Conference will be one
day only, just before the RI International Conference
starts. It will be a busy time for all! D5K is still
requesting volunteers to fill vacant positions. You must
be registered for the conference if you want tovolunteer. To date, there are 20,513 paid Rotarians
from around the globe that will be attending, from 173
countries. We are not sure how the Coronavirus will
impact this (Japan, Korea, etc.), hopefully, it will beover by then.
We were given a list of the events that will be held
during the international conference, such as Paddle Outto End Polio

Rotary – 115 Years of Service to the World!

As mentioned earlier, D5K still needs volunteers. This is
an opportunity of a Rotarian life-time! Remember, thelast time we had the RI International Conference wasback in the mid-sixties!

Ace of Hearts

No Ace of Hearts today.

Answer to this week’s Question:
4,000 years!

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is getting taller! In 1999,
engineers closed the 185-foot white marble building
for a decade to make structural adjustments thatcorrected the lean by 17 inches. Recently, the Italian
government announced that the tower had recovered
1.57 more inches largely on its own (and thanks to its
shored-up foundation). At this rate, the tower will be

The Rotary Club ofWahiawa-Waialua

perfectly straight in 4,000 years! Reader’s Digest, March
2020 issue

Kate Butts showing Dr. Lynn Goya her new iPhone 11 Oh
my, I can’t figure this phone out!

(Go to our Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/groups/96286297
3749303/ to view all pictures.)Uh huh, uh huh

Ayaaaa !! NOT!!

Rotary – 115 Years of Service to the World!

Here…Let me take a look

You got to be kidding me! The on and off button?! Yes!
(this is not what really happened, but it was funnyanyway!)

President Alex getting his “bright” Aloha shirt readyNo one can accuse me of hiding anymore!
Pineapple byOh, that is amazing!

Eh! No baddah me!

No boddah me, no baddah you!

Salad selections
Derrek Conselva - After

Derek Conselva – Before!

Rotary – 115 Years of Service to the World!

Lunch selections

The Rotary Club ofWahiawa-Waialua

I’m really excited today!

Are you sure?!

PP Doc McKenzie reciting the Pledge

Y-E-SSS, We can!!

Rotary – 115 Years of Service to the World!

PP Doc McKenzie paying for a great lunch

Jackie Barnes giving her HI $5

Alison Kanamu giving her HI $5

Kate Butts’ HI $5 and photographer abuse!

Derek Conselva giving his HI $5

PP Geoff Horvath giving the HRYF report

PP Lilette telling us her experiences she had during the HRYF
interviews

Next on the Agenda is…..

Rotary – 115 Years of Service to the World!

Editor Geoff taking copious notes!

PP Doc McKenzie fitting fit after his recent surgery

PP Geoff gibing his HI $5

Marie Abatayo telling us about her experience with theHRYF interviews

The Rotary Club ofWahiawa-Waialua