Calling All Volunteers: Work Days Planned for Mo’il’ili Japanese Cemetery Beautification Project

“The 1968 memorial to the first Japanese immigrants was hidden away for so many years by a sad chain-link fence. Now the memorial is finally visible to all who drive by or go into the cemetery. The 100+ year-old cemetery is home to over a thousand memorials to individuals and families,” said Laura Ruby speaking on behalf of the Mo’il’ili Community who has received an Awesome Foundation Grant to support the building of the Kuilei-Waiaka bluestone wall. The wall will be 2-2.5 feet high and extend Diamond Head and Ewa from the 2 existing gateposts. The length of the wall will be determined by the number of discarded bluestones found in the cemetery.

VOLUNTEER LABOR NEEDED SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS

 SEPTEMBER 8-9 AND 15-16
8am to 3pm
LUNCH AND WATER PROVIDED

HELP NEEDED:
--mixing mortar and helping make good wall-building decisions
--heavy lifting of football to basketball sized stones and placing them into the wall
--gathering baseball-sized to football-sized stones near the wall construction
--piling small blue and native stones near the wall construction
--raking the soil on both sides of the wall and concrete sub footing

Please bring sunscreen, hat, sensible shoes,
    and if you have them, gloves

MATERIAL DONATIONS WISH LIST:
--1.5 cu yds. of concrete from Island Ready Mix (or another concrete company)
--10 cu. yds.of concrete
--bags of mortar from City Mill
--lots of bluestone/blue rock and truck hauling
--a curved wrought-iron sign at the entrance
--some irrigation hose to establish and grow the donated plumerias and plants

For more information contact:

Laura Ruby Tel.: 808-947-3641; Email: lruby@Hawaii.edu