East Oahu Sun • JUNE 2, 2011 • Page 6

Hawaii Job Corps Landscaping Students Contribute Lei to Memorial Day

Hawaii Job Corps Center students can frequently be found working on community projects. On May 26, the landscape students applied their pruning skills at the Koko Crater Botanical Garden Plumeria Grove. This project is run in conjunction with the City & County Parks Department. The Job Corp students were collecting flowers to be made into lei that were placed on Veteran gravesites on Memorial Day. Koko Crater Botanical Garden is a landmark worth visiting in East Oahu. Not only is it a beautiful location, it has a large collection of dry land plants from regions around the world, including the Americas, Madagascar, Africa and Hawaii. The Garden is inside the dry and arid 60-acre Kokohead Crater basin. A two-mile loop makes for a great walk.

One of the predominant features of the Garden is the Plumeria Grove. The common name for the plumeria was originally Frangipani, until 17th century French Botanist Charles Plumier returned from a voyage to the New World and the flower was named in honor of his findings. In the Hawaiian Language, the plumeria is referred to as “Melia. Lei is the Hawaiian word for garland, a tradition that came from their Polynesian cultural background. Polynesians give lei in order to honor, decorate or as a sign of affection towards another person. Hawaiian lei have been made from a variety of materials, including fragrant flowers like the plumeria. On this morning, twenty-five Job Corps students wielding long garden clippers cut and plucked a wide variety of fragrant plumeria flowers at the Garden. The flowers were boxed and sprinkled lightly with water to keep them fresh prior to being shipped off to several locations around Oahu where they will be sewn into lei. Julie Dugan, Hawaii Job Corps Business & Community Liaison, was on site with the students. She was especially touched by the deep sentiment that was expressed by a few of the students,  “A couple of the young men told me that they were happy to do something like this because they have family and friends serving in the military. This experience became a meaningful way of showing support to those in the military.”

The City & County Parks Department sponsors the Memorial Day event at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as Punchbowl National Cemetery. It is their goal to collect 50,000 lei for the event. This is the fifth year Job Corps students have assisted with this special community project. Established in 1964, The Job Corps has trained and educated more than 2 million young people, serving more than 60,000 each year. Job Corps is administered by the U.S. Department of Labor and currently offers training at 124 centers across the country. Those who want to learn more about what the Hawaii Job Corps has to offer can contact Julie Dugan at (808) 259-6051.