January 2021| No. 60 LANAKILA KŪPUNA NEWS Inside This Issue: New Year, New Events! Message from Susie 2 Resources during COVID-19 3 Class & Club Greetings 5 Mahalo for your Donation 8 Cultural Club Updates 9 Schedule of Classes 11 Upcoming Events Calendar 12 A program of Catholic Charities Hawai’i funded in part by the State of Hawaii via contract with the State Executive Office on Aging (EOA) and the C&C of Honolulu, Elderly Affairs Division, and a Persons In Need grant from the May Templeton Hopper Fund and Minnie K. Fund via the Hawai`i Community Foundation. A MESSAGE FROM SUSIE Happy New Year, Everyone!!! We hope you are healthy, happy and enjoying the holidays! For those who could not take off from work, your efforts on behalf of our community is deeply appreciated. We met our goal of preparing and personalizing 3,930 holiday cards for the men and women of the Navy and Marines, who had to remain in Hawaii during the holidays away from their families. We worked with Navy League of the United States, Honolulu Council, Executive Director Jane Ferreira to provide holiday greetings for the 3,930 holiday gift bags made especially for these service men and women. Mahalo to Diana Antonio, Lynda Asato, Mona Bernardo, Corinne Chan, Edna Chang, Grace Chang, Donna Compton, Yoi Endo, Sandy Furumori, Pamela Gonsales, Amy Hagihara, Jane Higa, Lillian Inatsuka, Janet Ito, Diana Kawaguchi, Richard Kim from Kapolei High School National Honor Society, Violet Kondo, Dorene Koyanagi, Christina Lai, Darlene Larimore, Rio Martell, Karen Matsunaga and family, Bev Mau, Dorothy Mau, Ann Mayeda, Janet Miyashiro, Judy Nakamura, Jane Noe, Linda Oka, Ralene Ooka, Jane Onishi, Faye Rainey, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Reyes, Sharon Sekine, Yoko and Richard Shaw, Wayne Shiohira, Claire Shirota, Mary Sueda, Lenora Springer, Wendy Tachikawa, Susan Takamura, Diane Terada, Aileen Wong, Joyce Wong, Valerie Yamada, Karen Yokoyama, Colette Young, Cynthia Young, Kapahulu Senior Center, Latter Day Saints Church members, Tenrikyo Honolulu Ko Church members, Catholic Charities Community and Senior Services Division, and the Queen’s Medical Center’s Cancer Survivor’s Group for their fantastic support in helping LMSPC reach its goal and bring happiness to the all these Navy and Marines service men and women. We were also honored to partner with Reverend Tad Iwata from the Tenrikyo Honolulu Ko Church to assist in wrapping Christmas presents for children with cancer. Mahalo to Lynda Asato, Alicia Nagasawa, Mary Sueda, and Jean Sugihara, who wrapped all the presents. We hope the gifts brightened all of these children’s holidays! A big mahalo to Weed and Seed Honolulu, the FBI – Honolulu and FBI Citizens Academy Alumni Association - Honolulu, Locations Foundation, and an anonymous donor for their generous holiday gifts to 42 members of our senior center who live in Kalihi. The generous gift cards, their thoughtfulness and caring are truly appreciated! To Ward Village and their customers, mahalo for all the gifts that were provided to other seniors of our center. With their generosity, many more seniors will enjoy some holiday cheer this year. Mahalo a nui loa to Andie Farinas, a student at Farrington High School’s Health Academy, for organizing a facemask project. As a result of her and other students’ efforts and resources, they were able to gift over 200 face masks for our senior center members to use this Christmas! Our gratitude to Marie Muir, Girl Scout from Troop 873, for making a new bench for our senior center members to enjoy as her project. The bench will grace our front yard now for all to enjoy when we reopen! Office of Veteran Services Ronald Han also asked for LMPSC’s help in putting together homemade gifts for women who were recently widowed and unable to return to their home country. We were happy to do so! Kudos to Center Member Lorraine Chang for a superb piano concert on December 15th via our LMPSC conference call and for all members who “attended”. We also appreciated Center Member Judy DiBianco for the delicious candy making workshop she did on Zoom as well as former LMPSC Program Coordinator Dianne Lim-Tam and her daughter, Kayla, for their facemask making and holiday scone presentations. Excellent! Much thanks to Roy Goshi-Otaguro from MOA Hawaii for the fun flower arranging online event that taught us that the beautiful energy that goes into the arrangement is as important as the beauty of the flowers, fern and other flora. Mahalo a nui loa to the Roosevelt High School National Honor Society’s President Erin Katahira and club members for assisting our senior center with putting together 250 holiday bags for LMSPC member volunteers, who helped Lanakila and the broader community over the past year and a half. We were able to hold a Holiday Gift Bag Drive-Through for these 250 wonderful volunteers! We would also like to thank Islands Hospice for their unsolicited donation of $5,000 to Lanakila Senior Center. We are touched by their generosity. We would also like to publicly thank Harris United Methodist Church for their donation of $2,500 that allowed the senior center to upgrade their computer systems, so that staff computers now have a camera and speakers to fully participate in and conduct online activities. We are deeply grateful to McCabe Foundation for their donation of $20,000, which will, in part, go towards increasing the WiFi capacity at the senior center to fully support the growing number of online activities now available to kupuna hosted by LMPSC as well as help us purchase computer equipment to create a technology lending library that will allow kupuna to fully use technology to access online services and activities in the pandemic environment. A center member, Roberta Wong Leung, was the first member to contribute towards the establishment of this new center lending library by donating a brand new computer to the center. Our thanks to LMPSC member Dorothy Mau, who will be doing a Good Luck Ti Leaf Bamboo Cultivation Workshop; Kalihi-Palama Library Head Librarian Trisha Murakami and Liliha Library Head Librarian Linda Mediati, who will be educating us on all the library services available to the public; Reynold Hioki, who will be educating us on Cybersecurity; Roy Goshi- Otaguro from MOA Hawaii who will perform a Japanese Tea Ceremony; Dietician Stacey Breshear, who will educate us on Eating Smart for Kidney Health; Norman Kaneshiro, who will be taking us on a virtual tour of Okinawa to experience the Okinawa Gakumun Study Tour; and Chen Sitan, “Prince” of Tai Chi, who will do a special tai chi presentation for us. We are fortunate to have such a wide variety of knowledgeable people in our community that are willing to share their time and expertise with our senior center members and other kupuna statewide. Mahalo to Jamelyn Mau, who took time out from her college studies during her holiday break and taught 4 center members, in person, how to use their iPhone. Ryan Quemado and James Li from Lanakila Pacific for patiently helping 18 members of Lanakila Senior Center learn how to use their computers, iPads, cellular phones and other devices for the months of November and December. Joan Matsukawa and members of the Hawaii MacIntosh and Apple Users Society and members from the University of Hawaii’s Pre-Med Association for sharing their time and expertise to teach kupuna how to use their MacIntosh and Apple devices in January and February. This is such a valuable service and the seniors of Lanakila are so thankful for your kokua. May the beauty and wonder of the Season fill your hearts with joy and laughter and may you enjoy time with family and good friends. Best wishes for good health and may we always appreciate everything that we have in this lifetime … most especially, each other. Best wishes for a great 2021 filled with hope, peace, charity, and grateful hearts! Me ke aloha pumehana (with warmest love), Susie Chun Oakland Program Coordinator Welcome New Members! Carrolyn Emoto Ellyn Kingsmill Frances Shimazu Clara Hook Claire Min Amy Yamamoto 2 Newsletter | January 2021 Community Info & Resources DOH Covid Updates SHIP Hawaii shares that The Hawaii Department of Health has updated the information on HawaiiCOVID19.com. The updates include: • New, easy to find information on the COVID-19 vaccine in Hawai‘i on HawaiiCOVID19.com/vaccine • If you or someone you know needs Ilocano or Marshallese, we’ve gathered resources in that language onto their own new pages: Ilokano (Ilocano) | Kajin M̧ajeļ (Marshallese), find these and others languages at Multilingual Resources. • View the latest Travel updates and FAQs. • The Face Mask Guidance page moved from Health Info to Life & Work • COVID-19 Directory: The floating question mark now sends you to HawaiiCOVID19.com/call Avoid COVID-19 Vaccine Scams While details of the vaccination are getting worked out, The Federal Trade Commission wants to point out several things you can be sure of to avoid any scams: • You can’t pay to put your name on a list to get a vaccine. • You can’t pay to get early access to the vaccine. • Nobody legit will call about the vaccine and ask for your SSN, bank account, or redit card number. To learn more, visit www.ftc.gov/coronavirus/scams or www.consumerresources.org/betware-coronavirus-scams If you become a Victim: 1. Place a 1 year Fraud Alert on your credit file. Ask creditors to call you before opening any new accounts or changing existing accounts. Request copies of your credit report and review them carefully. Equifax 1-800-525-6285 HAWAII IDENTITY THEFT RESOURCES equifax.com AARP - Hawaii Experian 1-888-397-3742 toll free 1-866-295-7282 experian.com/fraud BBB Northwest - Pacific Your Fraud Hotline (808) 628-3950 TransUnion 1-800-680-7289 bbb.org/hawaii/ transunion.com Department of the Prosecuting Attorney - Honolulu (808) 547-7400 or toll free 1-800-531-5538 Identity honoluluprosecutor.org Close any financial accounts that have Department of the Prosecuting Attorney - Maui been tampered with or established (808) 270-7777 fraudulently.