Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 13, Number 6, 1 June 1996 — OHA honors volunteers [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OHA honors volunteers

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs held its annual volunteer luneheon last month, giving mueh needed recognition to an important part of OHA operations. Volunteers at OHA are "unsung heros" Trustee Moanike'ala Akaka said at the volunteer luneheon, noting that they put in thousands of hours of uncompensated labor carrying out important tasks. OHA has volunteers in every division and in neighbor island offices. Over 200 volunteers have worked in the office in the past year putting in a total of approximately 13,420 hours. Volunteer coordinator Elaine Tamashiro noted that, based on average wage of $8/hour that would equal approximately $107,360 in labor costs. Trustee Abraham Aiona and Akaka thanked all the volunteers for spending their time supporting the office and its efforts to strengthen the Hawaiian community. Volunteers do a variety of jobs, from working on registering Hawaiians for the Operation 'Ohana program, to providing art and illustrations for the public information office. For 1995, the male voIunteer of the year award went to Wilfred Tisalona. The female volunteer of the year was Jane Yamamoto, and the volunteer program of the year was education's 'Aha Kūpuna.

Wilfred Tisalon and Jane Yamamoto: Male and female volunteers of the year. Photo by Rene Nakama