Fourth of July SUCCESS!

Vi really wanted to write the Fourth of July Update Blog herself, but her neck has been hurting so she asked me to write it. She's a much better writer then I am, but here goes anyway.....

Early in morning on the 4th, our country's birthday and Lou Gehrig's 76th year of retirement from baseball when he was diagnosed with ALS (Vi wrote this line, see how good she is).

Our Fourth of July set up crew met at Divina's house at 7:00am sharp to load up her tents, tables, grill and decorations. Meanwhile, at a much earlier hour, Glizza and company were busy picking up the Fourth of July BBQ food from Vi and Jan's house. We all met at the Kapiolani Park and began the long haul of set up for the second annual ALS Fourth of July BBQ. The tents were set up on the Diamond Head side of the park, trees were wrapped in red, white and blue streamers and the American flag flew high. It was a team effort! Thank you to our set up crew for your hardwork!

When we finally started with a welcome speech from Jan, he remembered all who could not come and those among us who flew to Heaven this year: Daria, Sylvia, Nancy, Joe, Bully, Charlie. They are having their own fireworks up there, I bet.

Lance and Nicole manned the BBQ grill, grilling up burgers and dogs. Vicky and Priscilla collected tickets and donations. Nancy was busy making shave ice. Jeannie was painting the kiddies face. Divina and Natalie called out winning raffle numbers. Pete took photos and everyone had a great time! Thank you to all of our raffle prize donors: Tropical Blends, Ocean Minded, Smith, Vertra, The Peggy Chun Gallery, Menchies Frozen Yogurt, Bikram Yoga and The Moana Surfrider. Thank you to Daniel, Cole and Tanya for collecting the prizes! Thank you to D. Otanu Produce for donating the veggies and to Loves Bakery for the buns!

Vi, Britt, Chester and Celeste were there enjoying the festivities and soaking up the sun.

The Fourth of July competitive spirit was souring high! We played water balloon toss, tug-o-war, relays and a good ol' fashion game of softball.

This Fourth of July was a huge success and could not have been possible without the tremendous help from family, friends and strangers. For fear that I might leave a name out I'm just going to say thank you to all for making this event so successful, you know who you are no matter how big or how small your contribution. Pictures are soon to follow!