Welcome to the Rotary Club of Wahiawa-Waialua, Oahu

Are you an established professional who wants to make positive changes in your community and the world? Our club members are dedicated people who share a passion for community service and friendship. Becoming a Rotarian connects you with a diverse group who share your drive to give back.

THE 52ND AL WONDER CHRISTMAS PARTY!

Today we held our 52^nd Annual Al Wonder Christmas Party for our special ARC Wahiawa family. This tradition was started back in 1967 when, President, at that time, J. Al Wonder (1967-68) and the hosted a Christmas party for the ARC clients.

The Rotary Club of Wahiawa-Waialua were also instrumental in building the Wahiawa ARC facility.

Wahiawa office was opened 20+ years ago and has been providing care to about 54 clients. Some live at home, others live in foster homes. For the past 18 years, the facility has been in the capable hands of Renee Subee.

What a day! What a party, what a terrific MC, Rene Mansho made!! The atmosphere was filled with love, music, song, kindness, joy, and CHRISTmas! The true feeling of Christmas filled the Dot’s Pineapple Lounge, which was decked with great decorations. Members outdid themselves with the table decorations. Everything was done to perfection. One of the things that made this year’s party such a success is the hard work of Marie Abatayo, Kate Butts, Mansho and PP Lilette Subedi, and all those that assisted in setting up early. Members reported to Dots at 9:00 to start decorating the room, delivering cakes, and decorating the tables.

What made this Golden +2 Al Wonder Christmas Party so very special was the support we received from the community, like Walmart Mililani, Waialua High School STEM and Robotics Team, led by Glenn Lee, and other team staff, ARC Wahiawa Staff, and of course, Dot’s and Marian’s Catering.

Mililani Walmart Store donated $1,500 in support of our Al Wonder Christmas party. This is the third year they supported our Club. Seni Kaseli loves what we

do, Mililani Walmart graciously contributed the check with cheer and goodwill form the Mililani store.

Our guests arrived in special vans driven by ARC staff members. As the guests entered the Pineapple Lounge, they were all presented with special handcrafted Christmas lei made by members PP Lilette Subedi. These special lei were placed around their neck of our special guests by our special elves.

Once the guests were seated, we started off by singing Christmas Carols with our guests joining in. After all were warmed up, our special elves and club served the guests with a great chicken lunch and two special cakes for desert. The food was well received by all.

We shared more Christmas carols with our special guests, with some of them joining in the fun up front with Club members and elves, making up this special choir.

When we finished caroling, Santa Kool (Doc Carver Wilcox) came out swinging and dancing to, “Here Comes Santa Clause.” This, of course, brought the house down with cheers, shouts, and laughter. After Santa finished his break dancing, he, with the help of our darling elves, handed out gifts to all the special ARC guests. As names were called out, you could hear excited cheers, yells, and screams of Joy!

Thanks to the hard work of our many members and friends, our 52^st Annual Al Wonder Christmas party was a complete success. All our guests had the time of their lives, with a personal greeting and receiving gifts from Santa! The decorations were great and festive. The food was most excellent, and the fellowship was unbelievable! We all had a wonderful and joyful time spreading the Love of Christmas and celebrating the Reason for the Season! We are looking forward to our 53^nd Al Wonder Christmas Party!

Thanks to Marie Abatayo and dear friend, Joan Kutaka, who shopped for the presents and wrapped them all, and to Kate Butts working hard to get us under the D5K’s 501(c)3 umbrella.

RCWW Marches On In 2019 Wahiawa Veterans Day Parade!

The Rotary Club of Wahiawa had the honor of marching in the Wahiawa Lions Club sponsored 73rd Veteran's Day Parade! It was a moving experience this year, because we saw so many more Veterans in the crowds of people. More than in the past. We were also very privileged to meet and shake hands with a WWII Veteran. We handed out American Flags, that were made in AMERICA, and waved to the spectators. Also present were elementary schools in the Wahiawa/Schofield/Wheeler area, high school Bands from the Wahiawa and Honolulu areas, ROTC units from multiple Oahu high schools, VIPs, and vehicles. All members had a blast! See you next year!

2019 Dictionary Labeling Party

On Friday evening, October 4^th, members and one Hubby, Mike Butts (12), from the RC of Wahiawa-Waialua, held their annual Dictionary Project labeling party. The party was held at Kate Butt’s house that had a humongous garage to do the labeling in. The labeling party consisted of attaching two labels, one the 4-Way Test, the other with, “This dictionary is donated by the Rotary Club of Wahiawa-Waialua”, to the inside covers of 912 dictionaries, which will be handed out to all the 3^rd graders in the Wahiawa-Waialua-North Shore area and, as far as Sunset Beach.

We were joined by visiting Rotarian, Charles “Charlie” Kocher of the RC of Brookings Harbor, Southern Oregon, and his lovely Wife,

We started off the event with a delicious potluck dinner that all contributed to. We ate so much of the great food, we had to really force ourselves to work! When we finished our dinner, we headed to the garage to start labeling the dictionaries. We labeled 912 dictionaries in just 40 minutes while listening to vintage Hawaiian music. This is a Club record!

History: This project started from a shared dream between two Rotarians. In 2001 it became a Matching Grant project between India D3150 and five clubs in Southern Colorado lead by the Lamar Rotary club. These five Rotary clubs distributed 1800 books the first year. Since our start, over 128 service clubs, including Rotary, Lion's, Kiwanis and Sertoma clubs in Sixteen states and American Samoa participated and distributed 450,000 hard-cover dictionaries worth over $9,000,000!

This is one of our clubs’ special programs because we provide third grad students with their very own dictionary. A dictionary they can use throughout their elementary school years. We visit each school, tell the students what Rotary and our Club is about, personally hand the dictionaries out to the students, with assistance from their teachers. After the dictionaries are handed out, we play some fun games with the dictionaries, and challenge the students to look up words such as integrity, honesty, etc. When the fun is over, we explain what the 4-Way test is, that it is what Rotarians live by, then we have them recite it. It's a wonderfully rewarding experience...if you'd like to join us, drop us a line!

Congratulations to our 2019 Scholarship Recipients

Four deserving students pursuing higher education received scholarships in our 2019 Rotary Club of Wahiawa-Waialua (RCWW) Scholarship Program. Started in 1977, the RCWW Scholarship Program has awarded over $ 399,000 to outstanding students in Central Oahu and the North Shore. This Scholarship Program is the largest fundraising effort of the RCWW.

Call for applications for the 2020 program begins in November, with notifications going out to all school counselors on Oahu. Applications and information about our scholarship program may be found at https://www.hawaiirotaryyouthfoundation.org. For further information, contact Geoff Horvath at gjhorvath1@hawaiiantel.net.

If you would like to make a donation to our scholarship fund, simply make your check payable to RCWW and mail to: Rotary Club of Wahiawa-Waialua, P.O. Box 86061, Wahiawa, HI 96786