Posted: 11/06/20
In June 2020, long-time volunteer, Auntie Winnie Wong Naihe, turned 88 years young. Every year, we would look forward to a grand birthday celebration at HPS with our team, volunteers, and Auntie’s extended family. Well, this time around, it was all about safely connecting however we could, sooooo… Zoom it was! Some of Auntie’s children and grandchildren joined in, along with members of our team. Too many to fit on one screen, but here’s a look at one iteration—Auntie is in the center box with her birthday lei. We first met Auntie Winnie in 2003 through her Kumu Kent Ghirard that we had the pleasure of interviewing starting in 2001. She was in his professional troupe, the Hula Nanis, in the early 1950s. They had a beautiful life through hula for the subsequent five decades until his passing in 2011. Last year, Auntie Winnie’s daughter, Ipo (in center box with mom), began to join her at the office, volunteering for HPS and bringing wonderful energy and aloha to the cause, just like her dedicated mom!