2025 Holiday Luau Recap

A big Mahalo to everyone who volunteered to help make the Annual HTMC Holiday Luau a huge success! It truly takes a village and there are many steps and hands involved; from the planning sessions, to the sub-committee chairs, to collecting greenery, the set up, the food, the lei’s, the cookies, the entertainment, the prizes and raffle gifts, the emcee, the sound, the raffle, the decorating, the tear down, the clean up and hauling away of greenery.

The planning was started months prior and the cookie committee met a few weeks ahead to make the holiday cookies with Hawkins. Next came the greenery crew headed up by Larry Lee, who gathered invasive’s on multiple days! Mike Algiers even topped a Christmas tree in Helene’s yard to donate.

On Friday John Braum directed the Set Up Crew as they erected tents and strung lights and got the clubhouse ready to be decorated by the copious amounts of greenery on Saturday. Once again Bobbie Foster spearheaded the veggie laulau production and Peggy Hong lead a group to make over thirty Ti Leaf lei’s to give to the performers and volunteers.

On Saturday morning the tents and clubhouse were decorated with greenery. Bobbie watched the water level in the pots as she steamed the laulau’s. Meanwhile Larry Lee and David Johnson erected the Christmas tree and life size cardboard cutout hikers for the Photo Booth. After that, the tables and chairs were arranged for seating for 100, while Bob Tyson set up his gear and speakers to create the professional sound for the performers.

As guests entered the luau Hawkins and Bobbie welcomed them and passed out name tags, raffle tickets and collected donations. Kumu ‘Ilima Stern opened with luau with a beautiful oli and the entertainment began! Larry Lee coordinated a full program this year with an hour and a half of Hawaiian music and hula dancers. Jeff Gere volunteered as our 2025 Emcee and kept our program moving along in a smooth and timely fashion.

During dinner the lucky raffle winners selected their prizes donated by members. Sandy June and Barbara organized the cookie contest, a creative outlet for kids and adults alike. The Hike Trivia Quiz was created by Blaise Smith, HTMC Books and Records Committee Chair (to read more about it and take the quiz CLICK HERE). This year there was a new prize for Most Festive Dressed spear headed by Barbara Anneken-Nall.

After dinner everyone enjoyed watching Dale Yoshizu’s 2025 Hiking with HTMC slideshow CLICK HERE for the YouTube link. That was followed by holiday songs to hiking lyrics performed by Larry Lee’s Toe Jammers, which was followed by Jeff Gere who performed a poignant puppet show. We ended the evening singing Hawai’i Aloha with Angela followed by a closing oli chant by Ilima.

When it was all pau, luau participants stayed to help with the tear down process. And last but not least, on Sunday Pat Rooney took charge of the clean up crew who helped haul away the greenery.

As I said, it takes a village! Feeling inspired? Consider volunteering for next year’s luau! In the meantime, save the date for the 2026 Holiday Luau: Saturday December 5th!

Mahalo to the 2024 Luau Committee Volunteers and Donors*

Alvin Ito
Andrea Fleig
Andree Paradis
Andrew Bone
Barbara Anneken-Nall – Co-chair: Cookie Contest & Chair: Most Festive Dressed
Blaise Smith – Chair Hike Trivia Quiz
Betsy Fisher
Bob Tyson – Sound Man
Bobbie Foster – Chair Veggie Laulaus
Carole Moon – Co-Chair Potluck
Chong Suk Faivre
Dawn Bone
Dawn Soderquist Okano
David Chin
David Johnson
Dale Yoshizu – HTMC Hiking Slideshow
Dorene Char
Dominique Meyer Gere
Elizabeth Ruze
Hawkins Biggins – Chair Cooking Making & Chair Decorations
Iwalani Sato
Jeff Gere – Emcee
John Braum – Chair Set Up Crew
John Miller
Judy Mori
Julie Varela
Karen Liliker
Larry Lee – Chair Greenery Gathering & Chair Entertainment
Pat Rooney – Chair Clean Up Crew
Peggy Gwi-Soek Hong – Chair Lei Making
Sandy June Akers – Co-Chair: Cookie Decoration Contest
Talbert Takahama
Wendy Lee