Kona Celtic Connection at Kealakekua & Kailua-Kona Public Libraries
Day of Event: Monday, March 15 and Tuesday, March 16

Get ready to dance a jig, sing-along on a traditional Irish song, and learn why we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with the Kona Celtic Connection 3-4 p.m. Monday, March 15 at the Kealakekua Public Library and 5:30-6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 16 at the Kailua-Kona Public Library.

This group of spirited local musicians, with their fiddles, pennywhistles, flutes, guitars, and Bodran’s (Irish drum) will get your feet tapping and your hands clapping with their infectious music of jigs, reels, hornpipes, and sing-alongs while tying it in to some interesting Irish history.

Free to the Public.

Kona Book Club
Day of Event: Tuesday, March 16

The Book Club welcomes national best-selling author and Big Island resident Mia King to discuss her second novel, Sweet Life, at 11 a.m. Tuesday, March 16 on the Kailua-Kona Library Lanai.

From Booklist: “Marissa and Paul Price are living the fast-paced life in Manhattan. They have prestigious jobs, and their eight-year-old daughter, Pansy, has a nanny and is enrolled in the right school. When Paul is offered a management position at a resort on Hawaii’s Big Island, they decide to move to paradise, but it is not what they expect. For the first time, Marissa becomes a stay-at-home mom in a house that unexpectedly turns out to be a fixer-upper.”

Paradise seems like the perfect place to find herself, save her marriage, and reconnect with her daughter, but Marissa discovers her new life is less about beaches and beautiful sunsets and more about cows and lava flows.

King’s novels are selections of the Literary Guild, Doubleday, Rhapsody and Book of the Month Club book clubs and have been published in Germany and Norway. King and her husband Darrin Gee live in Waimea with their three young children. Her fourth book is forthcoming in 2011. She will discuss the book and also be answering questions about her books and the writing process.

Light refreshments will be served. New members are welcome.

MEDIA RELEASE

Unmarried couples, regardless of how committed, are treated as strangers in the eyes of the federal government. In Hawaii, we have reciprocal beneficiary laws, which provide unmarried couples, if registered as reciprocal beneficiaries, some of the same legal rights provided to married couples. However, this is state law and not recognized by the federal government.

United States’ tradition of favoring the institution of marriage presents unique challenges for estate planners who have unmarried clients regardless whether the unmarried couple is same-sex or opposite sex.

From 5:30-6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 23 at the Kailua-Kona Public Library, John G. Roth, West Hawaii director of the Young Lawyers Division of the Hawaii State Bar Association, will present a program to help unmarried couples make informed decisions regarding their estate planning.

On the agenda: Who will make decisions for you if you become incapacitated? Who will receive your property after your lifetime? Will you be able to visit your partner in the hospital? Who will make the decision whether you should be on life support?

This presentation will be followed by a short question-and-answer period.

Sponsored by Friends of the Libraries, Kona, this program is offered free to the public.

MEDIA RELEASE

The Friends of the Libraries, Kona will host a free read-aloud program, “Books are Building Blocks,” 4:30-6:45 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 2 at the Kailua Kona Public Library.

Parents must attend the program with their children. Participation is limited to the first 75 people.

The program is designed to encourage family literacy. There will be five separate reading groups: ages 5 to 7, 8 to 10, 11 to 13, 14 to 18, and their parents. Each group will have a person reading aloud to them, followed by a discussion of what was read.

Registration is 4:30 p.m. in front of the library. Families will then separate into groups with a reader. Afterward, the families will meet on the lanai for free refreshments, prizes and books.

To preregister, volunteer, sponsor this program, or for more information, contact Shani Dutton at 936-6190 or e-mail folk@folkhawaii.com.

MEDIA RELEASE

The Friends of the Library, Kona will hold its annual meeting 10 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 26 on the lanai of the Kailua Kona Library followed by a short reception with refreshments.

Current FOLK members are encouraged to attend as well as those interested in becoming members. Following the reception, the Kona Library Book Club will meet at approximately noon.

This meeting date is a change from the usual third Tuesday of the month due to the library closure for Martin Luther King Day.

The book for this month is “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak. Set during World War II in Germany, this groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich.

Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.

This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul. Narrated by Death himself, it is the story of a young girl who has new worlds opened to her through reading and how she is sustained by books through the darkest times of the war.

New members are welcome.

MEDIA RELEASE

Joe Herrington, cowboy poet and story teller, will be at the Kailua Kona Library at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 16.

Joe grew up at the feet of storytellers in the days before television assaulted the imagination. Learning from his grandfather and uncle to weave tales and appreciate the power of words, Joe discovered in his own stories that one could safely go wherever you wanted to go, be whoever you wanted to be, conquer any evil and always win.

Come and listen to Cowboy Poet and Storyteller, Joe Herrington and experience the warmth of his homespun Campfire Stories told in the western tradition of honor, courage and rugged characters along with ranch-hand verse, touchin’ the heart and ticklin’ the soul.

Sponsored by Friends of the Libraries, Kona, this program is offered free to the public.

MEDIA RELEASE

The Friends of the Libraries, Kona (FOLK) will hold its next book sale 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 9 on the lanai of the Kailua-Kona Library.

Funds from sales help support the needs of Kona libraries, with funding that includes educational and entertainment programs, community summer reading programs, visiting authors, magazine subscriptions, CD’s, DVD’s and new book purchases.

Take advantage of great prices and as always volunteers are welcome. If you find yourself willing and able, e-mail FOLK@folkhawaii.com or call 329-3440.

MEDIA RELEASE

The Friends of the Libraries, Kona (F.O.L.K.) will host a free read aloud program: “Books are Building Blocks” from 4:30-7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 1 at the Kailua Kona Public Library.

This program will continue to be offered the first Tuesday evening of each month and will give families the opportunity to enjoy books being read aloud for children ages 5-18. The adults will have their own reading group and must attend the program with their children (no exceptions).

This free monthly program is to encourage family literacy. There will be five separate reading groups: ages 5-7, ages 8-10, ages 11-13, ages 14-18, and their parent(s). Each group will have a person reading aloud to them, followed by a discussion of what was read.

Registration is 4:30 p.m. in the library lobby. Families will then separate into groups with a reader at 5:15 p.m.. Afterward, the families will meet on the lanai for free refreshments, prizes, and a book swap.

F.O.L.K. is seeking volunteers with a dramatic flair to read aloud to children or adults.

To pre-register, volunteer, or for more information, contact Shani Dutton at 936-6190 or e-mail F.O.L.K. at FOLK@folkhawaii.com.

MEDIA RELEASE

Dorothy Hinshaw Patent will be on hand to talk of her adventures from Alaska to Ecuador and China to France at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 24 at the Kailua-Kona Public Library.

Dorothy has been writing nonfiction books for children for 35 years.  Her passion for personal experience about her subject matter has led her far and wide as she investigates everything from polar bears to the fauna of the Galapagos Islands and from the terra cotta warriors of China’s first emperor to the fabulous prehistoric paintings of the Lascaux cave in France.

Dorothy will accompany her talk with a slide show illustrating her adventures.

Sponsored by Friends of the Libraries, Kona, this program is offered free to the public.

MEDIA RELEASE

The Friends of the Libraries, Kona (FOLK) hosts a book sale 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14 on the lanai of the Kailua-Kona Public Library.

Funds from sales help support the needs of Kona libraries, with funding that includes educational and entertainment programs, community summer reading programs, visiting authors, magazine subscriptions, CD’s, DVD’s and new book purchases.

Come and take advantage of great prices and as always volunteers are welcome.

If you find yourself willing and able, e-mail FOLK@folkhawaii.com or call 323-2117.

MEDIA RELEASE

Find out what remarkable things are happening at Kahaluu Bay 5:30–6:30 p.m. Tuesday, November 10, at the Kailua-Kona Public Library.

Over the years, Kahaluu Bay has suffered from heavy usage. With more than 400,000 users a year, the bay’s coral reef is threatened and the beach has fallen into disrepair and overuse.

The Kahaluu Bay Project has more than 390 trained volunteers and over three dozen businesses working to bring back the cultural, natural, and social significance of this area.

Cindi Punihaole, community outreach and volunteer coordinator with The Kohala Center, which manages the Kahaluu Bay Project, will describe how to start a ReefTeach Program in your area, how businesses can Adopt-a-Day at Kahaluu Bay, the benefit Bay Concert, Outreach ReefTeach training for elementary, intermediate and secondary schools, water quality monitoring by the Citizen Science Program at Kahaluu, and how volunteers can help educate visitors at Kahaluu Bay.

For more information, contact Punihaole at cpunihaole@kohalacenter.org or 895-1010.

Sponsored by Friends of the Libraries, Kona, this program is offered free to the public.

Message from FOLK:

Please go into your public library this week.  It is COUNT WEEK and your physical presence may keep our library open.

Drop by to the Kealakekua branch, meet Kipapa, a children’s and young adult’s librarian from Waimea who is helping to bring things up to standard.

And meet Moea who until recently worked at the Kailua branch.

At the same time, the librarian has put out comment sheets and is actively soliciting feedback.

Here is a chance for the community to speak out about what we want to see happening in our library.

Every person who goes in will be counted and those numbers will help show that these branches should be kept open.

— Find out more:

 www.folkhawaii.com