June and I attended the Distinguished Alumni and Service Awards ceremonies for the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo last week.

Representative Clift Tsuji, Margaret Ushijima and Senator John Ushijima received the Distinguished Service Award.

The Distinguished Alumni awards went to Carol Ginoza-Arakaki and Ron Terry, and that was especially meaningful for me.

I knew Carol Ginoza-Arikawa when we were both new real estate sales people working for Ala Kai Realty in the mid ’70s. She was more senior than me. We’ve been friends ever since.

The thing I remember most from those early days was that Carol was absolutely unequivocally ethical in all her dealings. Everything was absolutely clear to her. Now if I have a property to rent, I know that I can call her and know without a doubt everything will be fine.

Carol is a 1973 graduate of UH Hilo with degrees in both English and Social studies. She founded Ginoza Realty, Inc. in 1982 and remains its principal broker and president.

She serves on many business organizations. Her community service includes membership on the Kuikahi Mediation Board of Directors since 2006, and also served as its fundraising co-chair the past three years. She served as treasurer of Hilo Little League from 1997-2006, and served double-duty as its secretary from 2000-2006. She was also on the board of the Boys and Girls Club of Hilo from 2003-2006.

She has a long record of service to UH Hilo. She chaired the UH Hilo Athletic Fund Drive from 1992-1995, and has served on the UH Hilo Athletics Advisory Board since 2003. She is a charter member of Hui Ka‘ua, seving on various committees. Her company donated funds to furnish the Vulcan softball team in 2003. In 2007, she contributed toward the UH Hilo Performing Arts “Name A Seat” campaign, and she is the newest member to join the Performing Arts Center’ Advisory Committee.

Although I don’t know Ron Terry personally, I very much related to his experiences. He said that he started UH Hilo as a red-haired kid with an Afro from Puna. He came from a modest background and he and his sister were the first in their family to go to college. He received financial assistance, which made it possible for him to graduate from UH Hilo with a geography degree. With encouragement from his teachers at UH Hilo, he later went on to get a doctorate degree at LSU. The way he told the story was very inspiring.

In June 2008, Terry established the Geography Founders Scholarship, naming the $25,000 endowed scholarship after UH Hilo Geography Department founders Drs. Jim and Sonia Juvik, Jim Kelly and Jack Healy, who all inspired and encouraged him to continue his education after earning his degree at UH Hilo.

I was fortunate myself to work with Sonia Juvik and the Keaholoa STEM Native Hawaiian program. She knew I was very interested in contributing to the program and she gave me that opportunity. I can relate to how grateful Ron felt.

In 1992, he started Geometrician Associates. His company has now completed more than 100 Environmental Assessments and Environmental Impact Statement documents.

In 2004, Terry was selected as a member of the Mauna Kea Management Board, which is an advisory group to UH Hilo Chancellor Rose Tseng in the management of the Mauna Kea Science Reserve. Since 2006, he has served as its second vice chair, has worked to revive the Environment Committee and was overseeing completion of Mauna Kea’s first Natural Resource Management Plan.

Three years ago, I volunteered to be on the Hawai‘i Island Economic Development Board’s newly formed Thirty-Meter Telescope committee, and since then I have learned a lot about the Mauna Kea Management Board’s efforts to take care of Mauna Kea.

The first thing to remember and understand is that it is a volunteer position. Members do this work because they want to do it; they aren’t forced to. Dr. Ron Terry not only volunteered to do this job without pay, he had the educational background that enables him to do it well. And, being a person who owes the University a lot and who loves the Big Island, he wants to make sure that it is done right.

In our changing futures we will need to take care of our whole community, make more friends and be closer to our families. Carol Ginoza-Arakaki and Dr. Ron Terry are inspirational examples of people doing just that.

Nancy Redfeather was the one at the recent E Malama ‘Aina festival making cornhusk dolls with kids who stopped by her Hawai‘i Island School Garden Network (HISGN) booth. How unexpected, and fun, is that?!

That’s Nancy above in the brown t-shirt

Girls with their cornhusk dolls

The year-and-a-half-old School Garden Network program assists Big Island schools and teachers with everything they need to operate school garden programs. “Resources, curriculum, funding opportunities, volunteers, events, media and professional development,” says Redfeather, who is the School Garden Network’s director. In addition to planning, writing and assisting programs, she visits at least 10 Big Island schools every month.

She talks about how disconnected children have become from their food, from nature and from knowing about ecosystems. “Children today don’t know a great deal about where their food comes from,” she says. “Does it grow on a tree, or a bush, or? They’re spending a lot more time inside than ever before, and eating way more processed foods, and they suffer from obesity and early-onset adult diabetes, things that even 10 to 15 years ago were unheard at the rates we are seeing today.”

With this program, which is at many public, private and charter schools around the island, they learn to grow food and sometimes prepare it. “They are amazed at how good fresh foods taste,” she says. “Especially ones they grow.”

“Moving children into hands-on outdoor classrooms improves their ability to learn in the classroom,” she says, “and assists them in deepening their classroom studies in science, math language arts and social studies. The garden is a living laboratory where curriculum can come to life, and the lessons of life are experienced on every day. These changes in the children can lead to changes in their family, too.”

The School Garden Program, started in 2007, is sponsored by the Kohala Center. “The idea for the program began with the Rocky Mountain Institutes Whole Systems Report for Hawai‘i Island, which was prepared for the Omidyar family on O‘ahu,” she says. “It was one of 12 ideas presented to move agriculture forward on Hawai‘i Island.”

At the E Malama ‘Aina festival, she set up a “Hawai‘i Island School Garden Network Student Farmers Market.” Students came from Pa‘auilo Elementary and Honoka‘a Elementary, and the Hawai‘i Sustainable Education Initiative in Honoka‘a brought a big bus full of teachers, students and some parents.

“They all brought food, value-added products and plants to sell and they sold almost everything,” she says. “The public was very supportive. We also had a craft area where we made ‘corn dolls’ from cornhusks. I grew a lot of corn last summer and had saved all the husks. It was a lot of fun.”

She says it was really a neat event. And she speaks highly of Richard and his having put on the festival in the first place.

“Richard is a cornerstone of our agriculture for the future,” she says, “as he is looking at systems and the future – something not very many people dare to do. I have a lot of respect for his work!”