Kaimuki77.org

Are you ready to party hearty? Our 30th reunion is now just weeks away and we hope that you’re as excited as we are to get together with old friends again.

Photos, please! Our slideshow won’t be complete without current photos of you in it. Send your photos to our class email address, kaimuki77@hotmail.com, and include a brief biography of yourself.

Friday, October 5, 2007
View Tournament of Kings information here.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Reunion: The evening promises to be filled with dining, dancing and great times. Please try to be prompt; you won’t want to miss a minute of it!
Time: 6:00 – 10:00 pm
Location: Main Street Station Hotel Social Club – 200 N. Main Street, Las Vegas, NV, 89101, Phone: 1-800-713-8933
The Social Club is located outside the hotel, adjacent to the Main Street Hotel’s parking structure. Look for the Kaimuki ’77 Reunion signs.
Buffet Menu: Spinach salad, tossed greens, crab salad, fresh sliced fruits, chef-carved prime rib, herb-roasted chicken, Chinese-style salmon, steamed rice, garlic potato en croute, green beans almondine, chocolate decadence, hot and iced tea, regular and decaf coffee.
Cash Bar: Alcoholic beverages and soft drinks will be served at the cash bar. Drinks are no-host, cash only.
Raffle Tickets: purchase raffle tickets at the reception table for the chance to win cash prizes! Tickets will be sold for $5 each or 5 tickets for $20. Bring some cash and try your luck!
Group photo: Las Vegas photographer Warren Wong will be taking candid and group photos at the banquet. A group photo will be taken at 6:45 pm. Group and candid photos will be available for purchase for $25 on a CD and will be delivered to your home in 2-3 weeks.
777 Brewery: We don’t want the evening to end just because the banquet is over! After the reunion, walk over to Main Street Hotel’s 777 Brewery for drinks and more socializing.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
The slot tournament that was scheduled for this day has been canceled.

This week’s bio is by yours truly; website upkeeper, reunion committee member and fellow classmate.

Aloha, friends! I can’t tell you how excited I am that our reunion in LV will soon be upon us. I’m trying to get skinny but that won’t happen anytime soon.

I’m married to a Kaimuki ’75 grad. We met after high school and have been together FOREVER but didn’t marry until our late 30’s. No children.

I’m one of two tech. coordinators at an elementary school. I’ve been with the DOE for 20 years and can finally see the retirement light! I can honestly say that I enjoy the challenges and dynamics of my job. Life is good when the profession you’ve chosen has meaningful rewards.

I love to travel, make jewelry with glass beads, and collect hashioki (chopstick rests). I like to be clean and recently discovered I am claustrophobic. Tight, enclosed places like the tunnel at the top of Diamond Head freak me out!

I can’t tell you how much I am looking forward to seeing you all again at the reunion! In my humble opinion, there’s no greater class than Kaimuki’s class of ’77. See you soon, buds!

This Year of the Pig Google is special to me. Find out why at the reunion!

As the reunion approaches, we’d like to reacquaint you with old friends and share a little bit of their lives with you.

John is a classmate who went to Aliiolani Elem. and Jarrett Intermediate. John moved to California after intermediate school and has made the Golden State his home. After attending high school, John went to Long Beach State University. Go 49ers!

He and his wife have been married 18 years and have fraternal twin boys who are ten.

John is an avid golfer and traveler. He enjoys attending Laker games and plays basketball in an adult league.

When John sent us an email, I Googled the company that was attached to his email address. The website looked suspicious and I wondered if he was legit or was going to be a Reunion Crasher ala “The Wedding Crashers”! In the end, we learned that John is the real deal because several people remember him, even going as far as to say, “he’s a good guy.” From the sound of his voice through his emails, he does indeed seem like a great person.

What’s the significance of strawberries to John? Ask him at the reunion!

Get ready for a night of jousting fun! We are confirmed for the Tournament of Kings show at The Excalibur Hotel. We are Norway! Print the arena map for our seating area, dinner menu, transportation info. and other details.

When I was a teacher-for-hire, a bunch of us newbies made our way into a room with a panel of a dozen principals from different leeward district schools. With our futures in their hands, we sold ourselves in the mass interview for the chance to be hired by the DOE.

Among the principals was Mrs. Fujioka, my former math teacher from Kaimuki. She taught geometry and made me love math for the first time in my life. With a student teacher both first and second semesters, she didn’t have much contact time with us. When she did, though, there was no mistaking the quality of delivery that exuded from this veteran teacher.

After being a math teacher, Mrs. Fujioka became the principal at Maili Elementary, which is about as close to the end of the island as you can get along the Waianae coast. For this Kapahulu girl, the distance was daunting but I would have driven off the island and into the middle of the Pacific to have worked with her. I knew that if she was a terrific math teacher, she was going to be a winner of a principal. Alas, it was not my fate to work under her leadership.

My first year of teaching, I had a class of fifth graders at a school in Ewa Beach. I used Mrs. Fujioka’s style as a model for my instruction. I wanted my students to see how much fun math could be and did my best to instill a passion for math in them the way she had done in me.

Today, I’m one of two technology coordinators at an elementary school where, in addition to maintaining the technology, I work with 4th-6th grade gifted and talented students a couple of times a week. This year, I’ll be teaching geometry and guess who I tapped for advice? Mrs. Fujioka.

My question to her was whether or not I should teach my students geometry using the problem-solving process I learned from her 30 years ago. The DOE has many math resource teachers whom I could have tapped for the answer to my question but none of them held the credibility that Mrs. Fujioka holds for me.

And bless her heart, she answered my email.

She explained that math has evolved a lot over time. Who would have thought math could change so much, it’s so black and white! She made me understand that rather than be rigid and conforming, math should be taught with more application so that it is meaningful in students’ lives. How brilliant.

The truth is, if I had heard the same words from someone I didn’t know and trust, the message would not have been the same for me. After reading her email, I scrapped the lesson I had planned. I taught my students about points, lines, planes, segments and rays, then had them take pictures of the basic geometric concepts on campus so they could see that geometry is everywhere in their world.

If I win the Mega Bucks at our 30th reunion in Las Vegas (hmm… mathematically speaking, what are the odds?), a good portion of it will go to our alma mater. We were lucky to have been students at a school with such wonderful teachers.

In closing her email, Mrs. Fujioka wrote, “take care and just call me Ele”. I sank back in my chair with a smile. I am privileged to know this lady who, though retired, continues to teach with warmth and grace. She made my day and school year.