Nine different Hawaii quilt shops make up the Feb. 1-22 sixth annual Big Island Quilt Shop Hop, where adventurous quilters can experience the entire island doing what they love most. Along the way, shop-hoppers collect stamps on their passports for a chance to win the grand prize, a Janome Sewing Machine, a second-place $400 ticket voucher from Hawaiian Airlines, plus fabric, gift certificates and more.
Nine different Hawaii quilt shops make up the Feb. 1-22 sixth annual Big Island Quilt Shop Hop, where adventurous quilters can experience the entire island doing what they love most. Along the way, shop-hoppers collect stamps on their passports for a chance to win the grand prize, a Janome Sewing Machine, a second-place $400 ticket voucher from Hawaiian Airlines, plus fabric, gift certificates and more.
Also available exclusively at the Shop Hop stops are nine unique quilt block patterns to collect and create the 2014 Shop Hop quilt. This year’s custom design is a pieced quilt with nine beautiful hand-painted tropical flower centers: hibiscus, plumeria, gingers, bird of paradise and anthurium. The quilt block patterns are free, or available for purchase with fabric as a kit.
The Quilt Shop Hop launches on Saturday, Feb. 1, coinciding with the 21st annual Waimea Cherry Blossom Heritage Festival and the Hawaiian Quilt Show presented by Ka Hui Kapa Apana O Waimea. Maps and passports can be picked up at any quilt shop on the route, and “shop-hoppers” can follow their own path, or sign up for a bus tour by calling Quilt Passions at 329-7475. Start in Waimea at the Cherry Blossom Festival, go to Topstitch (885-4482) in the Waimea Center, KTA Shopping Center, and the Hawaiian Quilt Show at the Kahilu Town Hall and go hopping from there.
For more information, contact bigislandquiltsh@earthlink.net or follow Big Island Quilt Shop Hop Hawaii on Facebook.
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Honokaa Elementary School is having this year’s first School Community Council meeting at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 28, in room J-7. SCC meetings are open to the public, and usually occur on the last Tuesday of the month. The school would love to have you join us to learn the process and add input and new perspectives. Hope to see you there! For more information, please call Parent Community Networking Coordinator Hilda Yagong at 775-8820.
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Ross Stephenson, historian and former keeper of the Hawaii Register of Historic Places, has been invited to make a presentation on the “Historic Maps of Honokaa.” This event takes place on Friday, Feb. 28, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. and again from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Hotel Honokaa Club. He will present maps and photographs of Honokaa from 1889 to the present day. Special map drawings of Honokaa and Haina discovered in Japan identify 900 Japanese people who resided there while employed at the sugar plantation.
The Honokaa Historic Focus Group, Stephenson and others are updating, rewriting, photographing and planning to resubmit the application, first applied for in 1976, for nomination to the Hawaii State Historic Register of Historic Places. There are county, state, and federal financial aid programs designed to facilitate the repair of historic buildings, which can attract “Heritage Tourism.”
For additional information on these meetings, and/or joining the H. H. Focus Group, please call 775-0678.
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Here is the latest on the Hamakua Community Development Plan. The Community Building section of the CDP Analysis Draft was reviewed at the January Steering Committee meeting. Here are some highlights of what the team members learned through their research.
In the area of housing, it is found that there is a high homeownership rate — over 70 percent of residents own their own homes. Housing values grew considerably between 2000 and 2010 (approximately 158 percent). Transportation points out that the Planning Area has over half of the county’s 122.6 miles of Roads-in-Limbo. There are approximately 29 bridges identified as Structurally Deficient in the Planning Area. Health &Social Services has identified that this Planning Area has the highest percentage of people over the age of 65 in the county.
Growth is projected in this age group, which will increase demands on elderly services. Land uses are listed as being 33 homestead settlements which exist primarily mauka; agricultural areas created in the early 1900s, pre-statehood and pre-state land use laws; and with currently 2,000 buildable lots on homestead lands having a potential for 1,100 more via subdivision. The majority of population growth in the last 20 years has been in homestead areas (27 percent) of Planning Area residents live on a homestead lot.
Please take some time to review the analysis draft online at www.hamakuacdp.info or in hard copy at these locations: Honokaa Public Library, North Hawaii Education &Research Center, Laupahoehoe Public Library, Kulaimano Community Center and Papaikou Gym. . Your feedback is especially important to the CDP Team as we head toward the CDP draft development. The deadline for feedback for this draft is Jan. 31.
Stay tuned, the Economic Development Draft Analysis Document is next to be released! Mahalo again for all your community support! We look forward to seeing you at our next CDP Steering Committee meeting and as the Hamakua CDP process moves forward!
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Lazar Bear will present Mardi Gras Hawaii 2014, featuring two of the hottest zydeco bands to come out of Louisiana. American Musical Legend and preeminent ambassador of Zydeco music Buckwheat Zydeco and IIs Son Partis Band together with C.J. Chenier &Red Hot Louisiana Band will be performing a four-island tour, playing their signature brand of zydeco and Cajun music, both backed by their incredible bands complete with accordion and rub board players.
“Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulet — Let The Good Times Roll” and come join us for this hot dance party with Cajun food, jambalaya and Mardi Gras beads.
The Honokaa event is Friday, Feb. 21, with the doors opening 7 p.m. The show is at 7:30 p.m. at the Honokaa People’s Theatre.
For information or tickets, call 775-9963. Online information and tickets are at www.lazarbear.com, or call 896-4845.
Carol Yurth’s column is published every Sunday and spotlights activities on the Hilo-Hamakua coast. She welcomes items for her column. Reach her by mail (46-1250 Kalehua Road, Honokaa HI 96727) at least 10 days before the requested publication date, call her at 775-7101, or e-mail waiukahenutz@gmail.com.