Ka`u News Briefs April 24, 2011

Miss Ka`u Coffee Brandy Shibuya shares the spotlight with Young Miss Ka`u Coffee Dayse Meleani Andrade and
Miss Ka`u Peaberry Rebecca Lynn Kailiawa-Escobar.  Photos by Julia Neal

LAST NIGHT WAS A WINNING NIGHT for the youth of Ka`u with the band from Ka`u High School, One Journey, winning the statewide Brown Bags to Stardom and Brandy Shibuya, Dayse Meleani Andrade and Rebecca Lynn Kailiawa-Escobar taking the Ka`u Coffee Pageant titles. 

BRANDY SHIBUYA became Miss Ka`u Coffee last night after performing a hula to Poliahu. “It has always been a dream of mine to represent Hawai`i and make a difference in the world,” she said. She described her home of Ka`u as “over 922 square miles of rich sacred land, holding the most powerful Hawaiian history.” She said she is “intrigued by its cultural diversity and natural beauty.” 

First Miss Ka`u Coffee Princess Janeise Cuison, Miss Ka`u Coffee Brandy Shibuya
and Second Miss Ka`u Coffee Princess Brandy Eder

     First Ka`u Coffee Princess, Janeise Cuison, danced Tahitian. She said she has a “passion for volleyball, baking assorted desserts and spending time at the beach with family.” She plans to become a nurse and “help the needy and the sick in our community.”
     Second Princess is Brandy Eder, who performed her own piano composition. She said she would love to be a doctor. “What I love the most about Ka`u is the aloha spirit, the way everyone is like family.” She said she wants to help solve the problem of domestic abuse, especially identifying teens with physical and verbal abuse problems through counseling in the schools. 

Miss Ka`u Peaberry,
Rebecca Lynn Kailiawa Escobar

Young Miss Ka`u Coffee,
Dayse Meleani Andrade

     The new Young Miss Ka`u Coffee is Dayse Meleani Andrade. She said she likes to dance, sing and play sports and wants to become a pediatrician. She says she loves living in Ka`u because “all of my family and friends are here, and because the beaches are beautiful.” Her talent was dance. 

     The new Miss Ka`u Peaberry is Rebecca Lynn Kailiawa-Escobar. She likes to play soccer and volleyball and make beaded jewelry. She says she wants to be a scientist because she loves nature and could “warn everyone in the world before anything happened.” She said she loves living in Ka`u because we have “fishing, farming hunting, and ranching. Ka`u is the only district with untouched beauty,” she proclaimed. Her talent was hip hop.

One Journey star Eunice Longakit and her friends sang to raise money to go to Brown Bags to Stardom,
 where they won the statewide competition in Honolulu last night.  Photos by Julia Neal

ONE JOURNEY came from one of the smallest schools in the state. “It was like David conquering Goliath,” said Brown Bags to Stardom producer Johnny Kai this morning. With lead singer Eunice Longakit and her back up band of fellow Ka`u High School students, One Journey won it all at the statewide talent competition on O`ahu last night. Kai said he became emotional with all the teamwork and sense of ‘ohana he felt from the One Journey band. He joked during the competition that the One Journey performers had known each other since “small kid time” something unheard of in bands from the big city, who are always “breaking up” instead of coming together. He said he couldn’t believe the Ka`u support for the group, having raised the funding to send One Journey to O`ahu for the competition. 

Bands came from near and far, and CDs
sold out to help One Journey.

     In addition to winning first against the big city schools, One Journey’s music video of the original song Lovers Dream, written by Longakit and James Tyson, is in the top six in the competition on OC16, and those results will soon be announced. 

THE REDISTRICTING COMMISSION for Hawai`i County will meet in Hilo Monday, and over many months of study and negotiation, is expected to re-draw the political map of the island, particularly for the County Council elections. Puna, one of the fastest growing populations in the state, may end up with two council members, perhaps making Ka`u’s council person more exclusively about Ka`u and South Kona than Puna. The area between Kea`au and Mountain View is particularly fast growing. Ka`u itself only grew by 2,624 in the last decade, according to the census, so its boundaries are not likely to contract, except perhaps slightly on the Puna side. The new process for drawing the election maps also allows the public to weigh in with their own suggested maps and gives priority to keeping towns and neighborhoods together, without political districting lines running through a community, when possible.

THE NEW SCENIC BYWAYS designation for Hwy 11 through Ka`u will be the topic of the Ka`u Chamber of Commerce meeting tomorrow at Ocean View Community Center at 6:30 p.m. Such topics as how long and where to make the scenic byway, what to name it, and what elements of Ka`u to stress in the signage will be discussed.

LOCAL ARTS, CRAFTS AND MUSIC fill the new pavilion and tropical gardens surrounding Punalu`u Bake Shop next Saturday, April 30. Ka'u School of the Arts hosts the Spring Fling event that features over three dozen artists and a full day of entertainment beginning at 9 a.m.