In The News…

In The News…

It’s not by design but our staff is in the news.

First, I am deeply honored to have been nominated and selected as a 2019 Gintong Pamana Leadership Awardee (of which our staff writer Dulce Karen Butay is Event Chairperson). I am also privileged to share the honor with my fellow awardees Melen Magbual Agcolicol, Dionicia Dionie Bulosan Cabias, and Greg P. Peros. Their leadership skills, commitment to the community and overall achievement are stories that need to be told. I consented to be nominated so my own story which starts with my parents can also be told and perhaps inspire youth to venture into the culinary field.

Second, our Assistant Editor Alfredo Evangelista is this month’s Sakada Offspring feature. I know Alfredo has been busy working on the 50th Annual Barrio Fiesta but his feature tells us about his other activities that he is involved in.

Third, our staff writer Gilbert Keith-Agaran is also the State Senator for Central Maui. The Legislature just completed its regular session and Gil writes about the bills that passed and the bills that failed. Now it’s up to Governor Ige to sign or veto the bills that passed.

Fourth, our staff writer Liza Pierce uses her own marital experience as the subject of her column’s topic of Fighting Fair. And yes, last month, one of our stories focused a bit on our Co-Publisher Vince Bagoyo, Jr.’s recent religious mission to the Philippines. We’re acutely aware we should not be the subject of any story and we really try hard to avoid that. But we’re of the glass full philosophy and believe our individual activities (that we hope are rarely focused on) brings us closer to our readers as we are involved in many of the same activities and events that our readers are.

We feel our community involvement gives us the greater opportunity to listen to our readers and yes, to write stories and columns that our readers are very interested in. Thank you for allowing us to sometimes open our individual lives to you. We hope to see you at the major events coming up in the next thirty days.

Christine Gambito aka “HappySlip” will give a preview of her show Saturday night, May 25 at this year’s Barrio Fiesta.

The 50th Annual Barrio Fiesta is shaping up to be an exciting one, with a few more events/activities being added. Telly and I are especially looking forward to watching the comedy act of Christine Gambito whose stage name is HappySlip.

She will be previewing her act at the Barrio Fiesta on Saturday night and performing at the Iao Theatre on Sunday. I hope you will be there to support and to laugh away! I also hope you will attend the other events of the Barrio Fiesta, including the Any Kine Sisig Challenge that is sponsored by Tante’s Island Cuisine.

There’s a lot of contests with large prizes to entice you to join. Finally, I hope to see you at the June 12 Gintong Pamana Leadership and Scholarship Awards Banquet. Aside from honoring Melen, Dionicia, Greg, and myself, nineteen graduating high school students will be awarded $1,000 scholarships from the Maui Filipino Chamber Foundation and their scholarship partners.

The scholars have a bright future ahead of them and they are Maui’s future leaders. We need to listen to their stories and dreams and do everything we can to make Maui ready for their return! After all, we share our stories, develop our relationships, and continue to build our community together.