Children and Youth Day, 10/2/11

Today, 10/2/11, is a celebration of Children and Youth.  According to info on the web, "In 1993, Children and Youth Day was established by law as the first Sunday of every October.  Later, Act 30, Session Laws of 1997, established October as Children and Youth Month in Hawaii.  The Legislature's Keiki Causcus has spearheaded the events for the past 18 years."

Suzanne Chun Oakland - Chair, Children and Youth Day and Co-Chair, Children and Youth Month.             John Mizuno - Co-Chair, Children and Youth Month

Personally, I was awed - there were over 300 exhibitors and community organizations providing free activities.  Volunteers were also provided with a delicious lunch and there were 5 choices.

I was not able to get a close up of Touch of Gold and Nanakuli Performing Arts Center performing a special song "Honor Our Children".

Sunny-Aloha Miller felt a need to have a song for this event. She asked Ricky Hana and Alan Satchwell to write a love song for our children.  She asked Taylor Hoopii from A Touch of Gold to sing the song.  She asked Johnny Kai who had already asked Pierre Grill to record the song.

Sunny-Aloha is in my opinion an Energizer Bunny.  Leslie, Jalna, Erick and myself have had the pleasure of photographing events that she has been involved with.  It is with her enthusiasm that she was able to bring together the above talents to launch the first ever song for this 18 year event.

 These young musicians also performed at the Capitol Rotunda.

More fun for the kids...

 Zumba!

Outdoor stage

The guy with his hands up was very talented. I don't have any picture of him spinning the basketballs.  I had used the largest aperture to blur the background which also meant that it would take a fast shot, uggh the basketballs looked like they were not moving.  The shutter speed was 1/1250 of a second

When he asked for audience participation, I made sure I used the smallest aperture and I was able to get a slow shot and now you can see the ball spinning.  I was able to use the smallest aperture because it was such a bright day.  The shutter speed was 1/15 of a second.

This teenage girl had no idea that he was going to have her pose with the 2 spinning basketballs.

 Lots and lots of volunteers

Luckily Sunny-Aloha Miller asked for 4 photographers.  Check out my friends' - you will see different activities in ours.  Once we started, we never saw each other again. There was so much to see and there were a gazillion attendees.  I forgot to mention, there were 5 stages, also a teen zone.
Leslie's blog, Jalna's blog, Erick will soon have his posted, here is his site Erick's blog.