Although I was not there in person to enjoy this last week’s pre-meeting fellowship, I hope that everyone else at the meeting did. I was glad that I was able to attend the meeting virtually together with Rick Towell and our semi-regular guest on Zoom, Rotarian Kevin Parle joining us from the United Kingdom. I did see Oliver Bartlmae hanging out before the meeting, and I wanted to thank Marsha Bohnett, Bub Wo and Rick Tabor for leading us in the pledge, song and inspiration, respectively. I appreciated the introduction of our speaker Retired Admiral Alma Grocki by Clif Purkiser, as well as her very knowledgeable presentation on the 80th Anniversary of WWII and the questions from the folks in the room. (I’m pretty sure I heard Erik Soderholm ask one of those questions.)
If you haven’t already, please check your calendar now for Thursday, August 14 and sign up to join our upcoming Pau Hana at La Mariana Sailing Club, Hawaii’s last remaining tiki bar and site of the original Hawaii 5-0. Even those who are too young to remember the original Hawaii 5-0 should come and enjoy hanging out with your fellow Rotarians in an iconic location with good food and good friends. Everyone who is able should also plan to join us two days later on Saturday, August 16 for our first RAT Pack project of the new Rotary year at the Susannah Wesley Community Center (SWCC), a non-profit agency in Kalihi-Palama, that has served the community for over 125 years. We will be cleaning and painting up a storm.
Assuming that the travel gods cooperate, I will be back on-island just in time to lead our next regular lunch meeting at the Pacific Club. Our speaker will be Gregory Dunn, President and CEO of the Hawaii Theatre Center discussing the state of the arts in Hawaii. I suspect that many of you may not know that I have a particular affinity for theater, having been both on and behind the stage for much of my early life. In fact, I met my wife (a theatrical costumer by trade) through participation in the MIT Musical Theatre Guild, so I’m looking forward to Greg’s presentation also for personal reasons. I also look forward to seeing many of you there.
The Rotary Club of Honolulu has taken on a new community service project by helping the Susanah Wesley Community Center to upgrade their facilities. For those of you who are not familiar with this facility, SWCC offers after school care for children in the community as well adult day care and many other vital needed services. It has been a few decades since RCOH has helped here and with limited and diminished funding for these needed services it is time for us to do want we do best and help get this building repaired and cleaned up.
Start Date:
Saturday, August 16th at 8:30:
We will need as many power washers as possible so please respond to this email if you have or have access to a power washer. If we can get 4 to 6 then we can most of the work completed in half a day.
There are many other areas that will need painting so bring your painting attire, wear a hat and gloves and also bring your water bottle.
Saturday, August 30th at 8:30:
Mostly painting and hopefully, if we enough people, completed the first stage in our project.
Address below:
Susannah Wesley Community Center
1117 Kaili Street
Honolulu Hawaii 96819
Mahalo,
Tom Coyne
THE ROTARY CLUB OF HONOLULU IS HOLDING A PAU HANA
Join us for an evening of nostalgia at Hawaii's last remaining tiki bar and site of the original Hawaii 5-0.
Bring Friends and Prospective Members
DATE: August 14, 2025 (Thursday)
LOCATION: 50 Sand Island Access Rd, Honolulu, HI 96819
TIME: 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm
COST: $50 per person includes 2 drinks and heavy pupus.
DETAILS: Feel free to stay afterwards and have dinner (your cost). Bring friends and prospective members.
Aloha Hawaiian Rotarians,
The registration is now open for the convention in Taipei on June 13th through 17th 2026. with the special rate of $395 until June 25th. So sign up now! Here is the new link where you can register and pay. The previous link was dedicated to Calgary.
If you have a project you'd like to present, please complete the Project Recommendation Form and email to our Director of Community Services, Nancy HERE.
Do you have a speaker recommendation? If so, please complete theSpeaker Recommendation Form and send it to RCOH Administrator, Lee HERE. She will submit all forms to the Speaker Committee.
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