1/7 – 12/24
We welcomed 15 middle school students from Nagaoka City in January to participate in the inaugural Nagaoka City Hawkins Project. This youth program is generously sponsored by Mr. Ed Hawkins who is President Emeritus of the Japan-America Society of Hawaii (JASH). Mr. Hawkins has a long relationship with Nagaoka City; he was one of the key players to bring the renowned Nagaoka Fireworks for the 70th anniversary of the end of the WWII in 2015 and worked on the sister city relationship with Honolulu in 2017.
This inaugural group of students were given an opportunity to stay overnight in USS Battleship Missouri and assisted the morning and evening colors, and visited the Nagaoka Memorial Monument on Ford Island which was dedicated in 2015.
The students also got to do some volunteer works. They learned about Ahupuaa (the ancient Hawaiian land division system) and helped planting seeds of Hawaiian native plants at Malama Loko Ea in North Shore. They also visited Healthy Climate Communities in Kailua to plant an endemic tree on the hill of the Hawaii State’s Hamakua Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary.
