By Edna Ethington
Da’ Hawaii Seniors Club invited members and guests to come to the first meeting of the new year on Jan. 11, 2018, at the Cerritos Senior Center to have some fun. After a short business meeting conducted by Co-Presidents, Carol Roxas and Liberty Santiago, assisted by past President Don Izumihara, Program Co-VP’s Glenda Ujiie and Aida Kull presented their first program for the year.
Ujiie and Kull asked different members of the club to teach everyone some of the ways that different ethnic groups said “Happy New Year.” They had 12 members teaching everyone how to say their New Year’s greetings as the, Portuguese, Filipinos, Hawaiians, Japanese, Indonesian, French, Spanish, Italian, German and other groups do.
It was interesting to learn that the Chinese in Hawaii use the Cantonese words, “Kung Hay Fat Choy” as their New Year’s greeting, but in Mandarin it is said entirely differently. According to Frances McCormick, the Cantonese greeting meant, “I wish you prosperity.” Danny Chang said that he liked that better than just wishing someone a “Happy New Year.”
After the members had practiced saying all the different greetings, Ujiie and Kull surprised me with a special award. Ujiie asked me to be dressed in all white and be ready to lead the song “Auld Lang Syne.” I was so surprised when they placed a jeweled crown with a snowflake on my head, and a white tinsel lei, with snowflakes, around my neck. They declared that I was “Queen of the Winter Wonderland of 2018 for One Day.”
Ujiie thanked me for all that I did for the club and especially for publicizing the club’s activities. It was a totally unexpected award, and because of Glenda’s careful planning and ingenuity, it was an innovative and educational program that involved so many people!
Glenda then asked everyone to join in singing “Auld Lang Syne” to celebrate the New Year. The club musicians and I accompanied the song with our ukuleles. Everyone had fun singing the song or blowing their paper horns.
After the celebration was over, Glenda introduced the guest speaker for the day, Personal Trainer Yumiko Jackson. Members came dressed to have fun exercising with Jackson. She was so enthusiastic about exercising that the members of the club listened to her instructions and joined in all the different movements that she demonstrated and told them to do. Most of the members did exercises for about 30 minutes without stopping. Club members followed Jackson’s lead while inhaling and exhaling and doing exercises for their head, neck, arms, hands, legs, feet, face and even their fingers! Those who were unable to do all the exercising standing up, did sit and did chair exercises. It was an invigorating exercise session, but also showed how much more exercise we need to keep doing every day to keep physically fit.
After the exercise session, members were ready to enjoy pizza and other refreshments provided by the refreshment committee for the day. Everyone toasted the New Year with tiny cups of sparkling mineral water or other cold drinks. They ended the fun-filled day by forming a circle and holding hands while singing “Hawaii Aloha” and “Aloha O’e.”
The next meeting of Da’ Hawaii Seniors Club will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018, at the Cerritos Senior Center from 6 to 9 p.m. with guest speaker Subha Tendulkar showing people how to “Lighten Up with Laughter.” Persons interested in joining Da’ Hawaii Seniors Club can contact Membership Co-VP Janie Aguirre at 562-868-3931.
