If you get a chance, take a drive down Farrington Highway past Wai’anae High School today or tomorrow. Graduation is tonight and there are banners congratulating the seniors all along the fence in front of the school.

I’m used to the lei stands along the highway, setting up in the early morning of graduation day. It always looks like a big festival with cheerful flowers and ribbons and inflatables. But this is something new.

It is a collage of color and excitement in honor of the big day. Kind of like a big town fair. I wonder if other schools have embraced this new custom?

You could drive all the way down to the end of the coast to Yokohama beach and enjoy the beautiful view just to make it worth it. Traffic will probably be bad from 4 pm on, so get an early start. Or come late and stay for the sunset, that is always a treat.

I was thinking about some of the people who’ve made a great impact on my life (besides my family) and ended up making a really long list. It’s pretty amazing and I’ve decided to share what I learned from them with you:

Joyce Seglin- When you are an administrator you are taking care of people from student to parent. There are many sides to every story. Color code everything to keep it organized.

Shelly Stephan-How to fold towels and t-shirts for the least amount of wrinkles, how to make Chinese Chicken Salad and Spaghetti.

Patti Shannon- Set mini deadlines along the way and it’s a lot easier to meet the final one. At the end of the box of foil or saran wrap is a tab to lock the roll in place.

Shareen Guzman-When students are learning how to design a layout or write a story, correct one part at a time and let them fix it. It’s less overwhelming than pointing out all the areas that need improvement all at once. It works as well when making kids clean their rooms.

Candy Suiso- Be nice and show people you care, it means a lot to them.

Toby Bachenheimer-Put all papers in file folders and file them.

Monica Leiderbach-Everybody should pitch in, no matter how young they are. How to make macaroni and cheese from a box.

Kathy Goetsch- That thing about giving myself permission to not do something I think that I have to.

Linda Johnson-Don’t furrow your eyebrows at your students to get their attention. You’ll end up with really deep frown lines by the time you are forty. (Shoulda listened!)

Paula Suiso- It’s really easy to make a big bowl of pudding for dessert and everybody is happy. Give each kid a chance to stir 10 times.

Roberta Cansibog- Forgiveness is deeply healing.

Debbie Ramos-Love is sometimes more important than a schedule.

Your turn. What have you learned?

Are you tired of waiting in line at Mina Pharmacy for your prescription? I thought I might be the only person sick of their poor customer service and incredibly slow assistance, until I saw a very angry lady at the front of the line last week. She was feeling the same way I do.

Over the past year or so I have had to wait a long time just to check out every single time I go to pick up a prescription. The past two times there has been a long list of miscommunications leaving me without pills in hand and having to return another time in hopes that they get it right the second time around.

This is unacceptable. People have to buy these drugs. For some, it’s a matter of life or death. There shouldn’t be this many mistakes and obstacles.

If you are a Kaiser patient there is an excellent alternative. When I called the Kapolei clinic to complain last Friday afternoon, the pharmacy technician explained that I can get my medication through mail order. It takes about a week and is cheaper.

So, if I plan ahead, I don’t have to park in that parking lot and stand in that line, just to hear that they were unable to fill my prescription for some odd reason or another and they forgot to call me and I’ll have to come back next week.

Works for me!

On Wednesday I went to the 19th Annual Kapolei Outstanding Achievement (KOA) Awards held at Lanikuhonua at the Ko Olina resort. Due to the rain there was a change of venue and we were redirected right next door to the Pavillion at the JW Marriot Ihilani Resort and Spa.  The minor detour served as no inconvenience whatsoever and the James Campbell Company brought us another fabulous evening, as expected.

The food was great, especially the shrimp, both hot and cold. It hit the spot. Oh, and I should also mention the amazing desserts. My favorite was the apple cobbler. The Ihilani really outdid themselves in honor of all the hard working people who attended this event. I also appreciated it.

What makes this evening so special is how educators, businesses, politicians and volunteers come together, energized by a collective pride shared over this growing and thriving community of ours–Kapolei.

I remember the first time I attended, about four years ago. There were several things that impressed me, and still do. First and foremost is the fantastic passion that fuels an amazing array of programs and services for all ages in the Kapolei area.  Second is Theresia McMurdo (and I’m not just writing this because she told me that she reads this blog.) She’s got a great voice and is easy to listen to. The formal  program runs smoothly under her direction with brief and heartwarming introductions and explanations. It hits the spot.

I was particularly moved by Margaret Pang who received the educator award for her work as executive director of the Dyslexia Tutoring Center of Hawai’i. To me, she represents an excellent blend of the passion and commitment and care that it takes to reach out and touch the people who need it. Clearly humble, she deserves to be honored.

Congratulations to all the honorees as well as those nominated. Each has touched individuals  as well as the community as a whole, our second city of Kapolei.

The graffiti around Kapolei and the rest of the island is out of control. It makes me sick.

It is a common topic of conversation in the car on our daily drives through Kapolei from home to school to extra curricular activities to the store or park and back home.

My children have become outraged as it appears on walls and rooftops and signs and benches of long standing and newly emerging structures all around Kapolei. They take it as a personal affront to their safety and well being as they grow together with this new city of ours–their home. For them the underlying question is, “If this could happen to the building, what might happen to me?”

The bus stop on Farrington Highway in front of the Halekuai center  is disgusting. There’s grafitti and trash everywhere. It didn’t take taggers long to mark up the new strip mall on the corner of Wakea and Kamokila streets. As soon as they put up the black barrier for construction on the corner of Kamaaha and Fort Barrette Road, somebody blasted that with their ugly scrawl.

It’s not just in Kapolei. The exit signs on H1 get worse and worse and it doesn’t get cleaned up. We see it week after week on our weekend trips into town.

My question is, “How can we stop this epidemic?”

I went online to see what other cities had to say about this problem and their solutions.  The consensus seems to be that the most effective approach to combat graffiti is to get rid of it as soon as it appears. The people who commit this crime are looking for attention and this would be the best way to eliminate the glory they derive from defacing public and private property.

This simple solution comes with a myriad of complications. Who is going to clean up the graffiti? and who is responsible when it is on private property? How can we enforce consequences when we can’t catch the culprits?

Over a year ago our local Representative, Sharon Har, spearheaded a very successful clean up day in Kapolei. She brought together community groups and members and they marched through our city armed with paint and brushes and buckets and really cleaned this place up.

But it didn’t last. When I heard her speak at a Kapolei Rotary meeting a few weeks ago I asked her about this problem. She said that she tried to do it again and found people much less enthusiastic a second time around.

How could this not be a priority? It is so visible and so ugly.

Are there any other solutions?

Please, let’s get together and clean this place up and figure out a way to keep it that way.