The Hilo Little League Senior All Star team just returned from the Western Regional Tournament in Ontario, Calif., where we made it undefeated to the championship game, but lost to the Southern California champs from Lemon Grove. We want to thank everyone on the Big Island for their support. We only had a week and four days to raise about $18,000 to offset costs of travel, accommodations and various other expenses for the trip after winning the Hawaii state championship tournament.
Many individuals, families and businesses helped us get to our destination through fundraising, donations and other support. Our big donors were Metzler Contracting Co., Rhodine Gifford of the Gifford Foundation, Brent Remmers, owner of Bob’s Fencing; Walmart-Hilo, Parts Center Hawaii-Napa; Big Island Delights, KTA SuperStores, KWXX, Maebo Noodle Factory and Atebara Chips, and a host of other generous firms and folks.
The team and its ohana held fundraisers at Napa, KTA and Walmart. We washed cars, we sold sweetbread, teri-beef plates and wonton chips, and team members held “fishnet calabash” donation drives outside Walmart. And we manned concession stands at baseball games.
We thank the Big Island community as a whole for coming together and really showing how much support we have from our island ohana. We would like to thank the parents and extended ohana of all the players who came out to support our seniors as they started their journey on to the Western Regional Tournament in Ontario.
The team members would like to thank their hard-working coaches for all the time, sweat and tears they invested into the Senior All Star team: Manager Zackery Higa, Coach Gadi Pulgados and Coach Clayton Ah Hee. Individually, and as teammates, they also have been coached and guided along the way by Kaha Wong and other mentors.
On the trip, parental chaperones pulled all kinds of assignments, from doing laundry for 15 young men and three coaches, to shopping and cooking for the group; serving as the cheering section at the games and being their biggest supporters.
We’ve grown close over this once-in-a-lifetime experience, and it’s almost like having a family with 15 sons and three extra dads.
Hau‘oli Aiona
Team mom and
chief cook,
For the Hilo Little League Senior All Star team and ohana
