Please support West Pearl Harbor Rotarian and wife of Matt Wong, Uthpala "Pala" Walpola, at her organization's fundraiser event scheduled for Friday, October 18, at the Elks Lodge from 5:30 PM to 9:00 PM. Pala came and spoke at our West Honolulu Friday lunch meeting a few months ago. Below is the information for the event.
Thank you,
Mike Kato
Dear Community Sponsors, Donors, and Supporters,
In celebration of Mental Illness Awareness Week, we are writing to request your support for the 7th Annual Waipahu Aloha Club Benefit Dinner “70’s Night Fever”, to be held on Friday, October 18, 2019, at The Elks Lodge from 5:30pm to 9:00pm. This will benefit the Waipahu Aloha Club, a 501c3 nonprofit organization that supports the mission and vision of the Waipahu Aloha Clubhouse.
Our Clubhouse motto and benefit dinner theme, “E holomua kakou me ke alu like”, Together we move forward, is the foundation of our program as we strive to create a safe and secure environment that fosters skills and disciplines needed for a successful community integration.
The proceeds from this event will allow the Waipahu Aloha Club to continue to provide employment, education, advocacy and wellness opportunities for people with mental illness. The services that we provide have enabled many members to become productive citizens in our community.
On behalf of the members and staff of the Waipahu Aloha Club, we would like to thank you in advance for your kindness, support, fellowship, and consideration. If you have any questions or would like to visit or tour our facility, please contact 808.675.0093 or waipahualohaclub@hawaii.rr.com. If you are interested in learning more about our organization please visit www.waipahualohaclubhouse.org
Please come and join us for lunch at the Plaza Club at 12:00n, and meet our speaker, Joan Naguwa from HUGS! Her BIO and credentials are noted below:
JOAN NAGUWA
Joan Naguwa’s professional career spans 40 years in the Hawaii’s nonprofit sector. She has 20 years of executive leadership experience with 3 nonprofit organizations and has been the Executive Director of HUGS since 2013. She also served as Vice President of Programs at Helping Hands Hawaii for 23 years. She recruited, trained and managed diverse volunteer resources and conducted training in volunteer program management for nonprofit and government organizations statewide. She also managed senior citizens programs, youth development programs, service learning programs and other community-based activities, bringing together a variety of sectors from the community. As Executive Director of HUGS, she is responsible for Board development, grants and fiscal management, mission oversight and program development, fund development, facilities management, strategic planning, human resources and a host of other responsibilities. She has served on various government commissions and community advisory boards and currently serves on the Board of Directors of HANO (Hawaii Assn. of Nonprofit Organizations.)
Please show your support by signing up at the link below and save the date!
Please join us for lunch at the Plaza Club at 12:00n and meet our speaker, Mark Ritchie from DBEDT who talk about Opportunity Zones!
Bring Commercial Bankers, Financial Advisor, CPAs, Wealth Managers and your clients to learn about this program. which was designed to incentivize investments in these areas through advantageous tax benefits. Investors can re-invest their capital gains taxes into these "O-Zones" and potentially receive material tax benefits.
Please show your support by clicking onto the link to sign up and save the date!
Mark Ritchie serves as the Branch Chief for Business Support Services at the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT). His Branch has responsibility for the Enterprise Zone program to stimulate economic activities including manufacturing in exchange for tax incentives. He is also a key player in formulating and executing DBEDT's export development programs.
Mark has held positions in a Hawaii life science start-up, a major Silicon Valley computer technology company in addition to economic development positions in several global trade and inward investment organizations. Mark has a proven track record in: strategic & partner relations; sales and marketing; product development; corporate strategy; and financing including venture & strategic. Prior to DBEDT, Mark held a key management executive position advising a Hawaii-based life science company on operations and business strategy. He led the business development efforts for the markets of human and animal nutrition including aquaculture; cosmetic ingredients and biofuels. Mark also drove strategic partner, customer acquisition and fundraising programs at the company.
In Silicon Valley Mr. Ritchie was a Vice President at Scottish Development International in San Jose, California where he successfully promoted Scotland as an investment location to senior management of high technology companies. He also account managed many of the most important existing foreign investors in Scotland, including Sun Microsystems, Intel, Micron, Cisco, Agilent, Atmel, and National Semiconductor. Before this, he was a strategic relations manager and a product manager at SGI (Silicon Graphics), the high performance computing company in Mountain View, California. There, he led a cross-functional team to launch the company’s first 64-bit Intel (Itanium) processor based workstation. Mark also spent a number of years as a business development manager at the Canadian Trade Office in San Francisco and in San Jose, assisting mostly Canadian technology companies seeking partnerships and venture capital in Silicon Valley. He holds a BA with high honors in political economy from UC Berkeley and a Master’s degree in International Business and Economics from the Fletcher School, Tufts/Harvard Universities.
The recently passed Federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 authorized a community economic development program called the Opportunity Zones Program. This initiative provides incentives for investors to re-invest realized capital gains into Opportunity Funds in exchange for temporary tax deferral and other benefits. The Opportunity Funds are then used to provide investment capital in certain low-income communities, i.e., Opportunity Zones. Hawaii designated 25 census tracts as Opportunity Zones. Come learn about this new initiative and how various stakeholders can get involved. More information on Hawaii’s Opportunity Zones and this initiative can be found at: https://invest.hawaii.gov/oz/.
Mark J. Ritchie Branch Chief, Business Support Branch Business Development and Support Division State of Hawaii, Dept. of Business, Economic Development & Tourism
It is great pleasure to inform you that the Celebration Dinner for the 45h Anniversary of our Club will be held on the 7th of October, 2019 in Nagoya, Japan. We would like to invite you, your Anns, members of your Club and their Anns to honor this occasion. We also would like to invite you, your Anns, and all visitors from your Club to Welcome Dinner for our foreign visitors on the 6th of October, 2019. 1) Welcome Dinner on the 6th of October, 2019 (Sun) at Hotel Castle Plaza; 2) The 45th Anniversary Ceremony on the 6th of October, 2019 (Mon) at Hotel Castle Plaza. We are presently making plans for our 45th Anniversary activities and the details of the schedule will be informed to you in due course. We look forward to seeing you again in Nagoya, Japan this October.
Yours in Rotary,
Hidekazu Yamakita Masanori Inaguma President (2018-2019)
President (2019-2020) Kazunori Kurita Chairman of the Anniversary Committee
We have received an update from our sister club Makati West on their 50th anniversary celebration. If you're interested in attending, please inform International Service Co-Chair Glen Suzuki (email: gsuzuki1@yahoo.com). He will be the liaison between West Honolulu and Makati West. Thank you.
Mike Kato
President
Greetings!
We have below update for our 50th Anniversary and kindly expect more update in the coming days.
22 November, Friday - Welcome Dinner
23 November, Saturday AM- Morning Activity (choices of Firearm shooting OR Golf OR Shopping)
I am the Point of Contact for the 2020 Rotary International Convention Host Organization Committee, HOC for short, and my job is to keep the Club up-to-date on the convention and also the HOC activities.
As a recap, the 111th international convention is well underway with about 18,000 already registered. Imagine Rotarians from all over the world coming to Hawaii to experience the Power of Rotary and enjoy our island hospitality! There will be lots of collaboration on projects and partnerships, lots to learn about Rotary and a lot of inspiration from awesome speakers. The convention will take place at the Hawaii Convention Center June 6 to 10, 2020. There will be great speakers, maybe 100 breakout sessions and several hundred booths in the House of Friendship. Rotary International is responsible for the convention logistics, the program, speakers, breakouts and the House of Friendship.
The HOC is responsible for the local events, which includes 2 lunch cruises, a windward fishpond service project, a walk for peace in Ala Moana park, host hospitality and a fabulous concert at the Waikiki Shell. We have a website for registrants to sign up for the HOC events and also tours and activities. In order to cover the expenses, we need your help with donations and sponsorships. If you would like to donate or can reach out to your company contacts, it would be much appreciated. If the amount is $6,000 or higher, please let Sonya Mendez, the Sponsorship Chair know, because we need to get Rotary International’s approval first.
We also need a lot of volunteers. If you would like to greet people at the airport, provide info at the Convention Center or just want to be in the thick of the action, sign up either on the HOC or District website. This is an initial volunteer registration. You’ll have a chance to choose your shift later this year.
This convention is an opportunity for you to see the Rotary big picture without having to pay a lot for airfare and hotel rooms. It will bring a lot of attention to Hawaii, not to mention revenue for the State. So, what are you waiting for, register now before the price goes up in December.
Here are web addresses for more information:
The HOC website is: rotaryhonolulu2020.org
The District website is: rotaryd5000.org
The Rotary International website to register is: riconvention.org
Thank you for listening and I hope you will take action to donate, volunteer and register for the convention. It’s going to be a memorable opportunity for us to share the Aloha spirit with Rotarians from around the world, make lasting friendships - and learn more about Rotary ourselves!
