 host of history is here to help. And today we have two wonderful guests who are, that is Cliff Shin and Hinda Diamond who are here to discuss Pololo Valley stories. And we're not giving a definitive history here. I'm not a historian nor are my guests. But it's just some interesting facts about Pololo Valley and also to celebrate an upcoming event that will be taking place in Pololo. And of course Pololo Valley was like many other valleys on Oahu that is mountain to sea, Oahu, which had a nice irrigation and traditionally used for tarot growing. But you know in the last 200 years there was a rock quarry there. There also were the dairy farms. And interestingly enough before schools like the elementary schools and specifically Jarrett Middle School were established there was the Oahu Country Club with its golf course. And that's where Jarrett Middle School actually got its beginning in. With no other further ado, let me introduce our wonderful guests. And first let me introduce Cliff Shin, who is not only the president of the Jarrett Middle School Foundation and full of stories about Pololo Valley, but also I was privileged to teach his children at one of the best schools not only in Hawaii but in America at Eolani School. And thank you for paying that tuition, which was much more than it is now Cliff. Lucky you. But anyway, it's my pleasure to introduce Cliff Shin. And Cliff, will you tell us a little bit about your background besides the fact that you were president of the Jarrett Middle School Foundation? Well, I was very fortunate to grow up in Pololo Valley. I went to Kamikaze High School, then the University of Hawaii. And I worked for IBM for five years and I started my own company and I've been in business ever since. That's how great and going from IBM to being self-employed. And I'm sure that means computer business. So lucrative field, I'm sure. And my next guest is Hinda Diamond. I know if she is the vice president of the Jarrett Middle School Foundation, but you know, more importantly, I know that she spent many years in social work in Hawaii. And maybe she'll tell us a little about that. And of course, she is well known to many of us in Hawaii because both she and her husband were in charge of Temple Emmanuel, her husband being the really, truly great and wonderful rabbi Ken Arana once. Thank you, Carl. Yes. Thank you. Hi. Well, we go from lucrative to a social worker. But I'm Hinda Diamond. Hi, everybody. I grew up near Pololo. I grew up on St. Louis Heights. And now I live in the Valley, Pololo Valley. And I've gone to the University of Hawaii to get my bachelor's in social work. And then I got my master's in social work. And I worked for the last 40 years in social work, child abuse and neglect, and specifically at Child Welfare Services here in Hawaii. So I retired as a supervisor after 30, over 32 years with the state of Hawaii. And that led me to spend more time with the Jarrett Foundation, which we'll talk about in a little bit. You know, I should mention also that, you know, Hinda sent her children to a Jarrett Middle School. But going back to Pololo Valley, of course, this is the Valley that has, you know, a Chinese home for the elderly in the back of the Valley. And that's my connection, how I'm having spent many a day there. And of course, back of the Valley, there's also one of the few public, well, not so much few and not much longer, but the K through 12 Hawaii Immersion School Anui Nui, which is also part of Pololo Valley. But let's let's let's get some stories in here with these two eloquent people. So tell us some of your stories about Pololo Valley, you having having been a local boy, like Hinda is a local girl in Pololo. Well, Carl, I moved to Pololo in 1951. And I used to live in Paloma. And while I was living in Paloma, all my neighbors deserted me because they were getting ready to build the mayor right housing. So I grew up in a neighborhood. There was very few families. There were no activities. And to keep ourselves amused, we would go rat hunting. That was the most interesting thing we had in Paloma. But then when I moved to Pololo, I was really surprised because what we had every Friday night were free movies and free popcorn. And I said to myself, wow, it looks like I went to heaven because we never had this before. I like to say that all my neighbors were really friendly. I remember one day I was walking outside my home and two young men bought my same Asian height came up to me and they looked me in the eye and said, you want to fight? And I looked at them and I didn't recognize them. So I had no ill feelings to them. But I said, sure, but I have to go deliver my newspapers. So we agreed to meet at Pololo Elementary School after I delivered my newspapers. Well, deliver my newspapers, met them at the school. We started fighting. It didn't last very long because I threw a left hook and I was lucky to land it on his jaw. He fell to the ground looking for his lost tooth. And the fight was over. He got up, we shook hands and we went our separate ways. We never mentioned the fight again. And I remember him being in my senior class in Kameke High School. So I really like the community because they're very forgiving. They didn't care if you were poor or what nationality you were. They were just friendly. And that's why I had this love for the Valley for a very long time. Well, Cliff, I'm going to follow up just with the question before we get to Hinda. That is, where did you watch these movies? And where did you eat these popcorn? Because I know that there's a wonderful pool and a wonderful park, but where in that dense valley? And the nice thing about Pololo for our viewers is that the construction of houses is not like a track. There are very many different types of housing. And when housing was, if you wanted to get a house in the 1950s, it was 11,000 and now anything in Central Honolulu is about a million. But going back to the question. So Cliff, where did you watch the movies? Where did you eat the popcorn? Well, you mentioned a golf course and they was a golf course. And in the pavilion where they had dinners or whatever, that is where we had our movies and popcorn. And back then we lived in Pololo housing and what they have today are like mansions because when we moved there, it was an army barracks. We had no windows. We only had screen, open screen. And but the community was very friendly. That's, you know, that's wonderful. And that, you know, golf course will later become, I mean, part of Jared Middle School, but also that that Oahu, you know, country club golf course, of course, will move to Vineyard. And I'm not to Vineyard, but to the Polly. And of course, it was, you know, hoity-toity, obviously, and it will become public housing. And there's been two major projects, and we'll understand in Pololo in terms of great housing projects. And I'll tell you a story later, Cliff, about about public housing. But, Hinda, now you not only lived in, lived in and live in Pololo Valley, but your children went to school there. So how is it being sort of a parent in Pololo Valley? I think it's wonderful. My kids, my family, we love Pololo. Going back to what you said, Carl, when we were looking for places to live, it was like a little secret. We didn't want many people to know about Pololo because you could live in town, but it was affordable. And I have a view of the ocean and diamond head right now. But we could afford it. Now, yeah, it's a lot different. We're talking about 20 years ago. But my kids, her, my daughter's best friend's house is 16 houses away. Literally, we counted. My son sounds kind of like how Cliff was when he was a young boy, a little Kalohi, and he has friends all around the Valley. Everybody knows my son. And I'll tell you the good thing about Pololo, which my kids don't necessarily like, as I say, the Valley has eyes. Everybody sees what you do in the Valley. So the gas station lady tells me, Oh, your son was in here getting an energy jink wasn't he supposed to be in school? I'm like, Oh, good point. Okay, thank you. And that's the gas station lady. So it's a very small, wonderful community tight knit our neighbors. We all know each other. It's just like how Cliff said, it's very nice. I don't have a dog, but I borrow my neighbor's dog who's my henai dog. And that helps me to meet even more neighbors as I'm walking around the Valley. Well, let me ask you both this, but I'll start with Hinda. I have heard that, you know, that they're of course, with you know, the original tarot growing, that there is a stream in Pololo and a stream that you know, is, you know, fairly prominent. And of course, we'll empty into the olawai and then into, you know, into Waikiki. But my question to you is, where is the stream? And do you see it often when you're hiking? I mean, I do some similar things when I hike in Manoa. And of course, I see Manoa stream all over the place, sometimes going through the the backyards of some of my friends. Mm hmm. Well, Cliff, if you don't mind, I'll just answer Pololo Valley has a wonderful shouldn't be open to everybody hike in the back of the valley because it is quite dangerous. I myself many years ago, like 30 or 40 years ago, had a helicopter ride by the fire department because I got seriously injured on a hike to the back of Pololo, where there's a beautiful waterfall, there's a crater, if you keep going up higher. And the stream goes right through the valley. Actually, you mentioned a new and new school, which used to be my old voting place, my old polling station. And I would take my kids and after we would go vote, we'd go into the stream and catch up here, just go with our little fishing net. And that was trying to get them to learn civic duty of voting, but also have some fun in the stream. That sounds welcome. Cliff, do you have also stories about the Pololo Valley stream? Yes, just on the east side of Jared School, there was a stream and I spent many days there fishing for crayfish and Jojo's and sore tails. It was a really nice stream. And I brought my friends and we spent a lot of time and enjoyed our fishing there. That sounds that sounds absolutely wonderful. And you know, Hinda, because you and I both mentioned a new and new school, one of the interesting about the K through 12 Immersion School is I understand the football team, or at least it's rumored, tells, gives signs and talks to one another in Hawaiian. That's true, which prevents anybody from stealing their signs and their and their conversation. Yeah, some of each other playing football. Well, let's get to, since you both are very involved with one of the centers of Pololo Valley, and that's Jared Middle School. And of course, Hinda, we know that you had children that went to Jared Middle School. So I'm going to ask Cliff this question. So tell us about your involvement in Jared Middle School. And also, you know, we do know when I wanted to point out that, you know, even though there is housing, you know, public housing right across from the school, and that that would sometimes indicate that a scores may be lower at Pololo. It turns out that Pololo is one of the finest middle schools in all of Hawaii. And so Cliff, that being said, and of course, their principal is Dr. Kubel. Let's give him credit and the faculty and staff, of course. But Cliff, so how did you get involved? And I know now that you were president of the Jared Middle School Foundation. Well, it all started many years ago, when my nephew was going to that school. And I wanted to help him. So I went to the school and I met the principal and the teachers, and I thought, what could I do to help the students? So I came up, came up with an idea where I asked the teachers to pick a dozen students, but I asked them if good if they could include my nephew. And they agreed. And what I did is I arranged a luncheon at Kahala Hilton for lunch. And I hired a limousine to come and pick them up. Now, my rationale was that if I was in school, and I got to go to Kahala Hilton in a limousine, would that give me more incentive to study hard? And that's why I started that. And after that, the school asked me, Clifford, could you come and join us with the SCBM, School Community Based Management? So they asked me to attend a meeting I did. And after the meeting, they asked me if I could run the meeting the following month. I said I would. But I got real busy. And I said, now, who could be a good person to take my place? And so I waited until it was only two weeks before the meeting. And I asked my wife, I said, Eileen, you know, I just can't make it. Can you sub for me? And she did. And she was so good that she was the president for the SCBM for 20 years. Wow. That's quite a story. And, you know, as part of this story, your wife, I think was in advancement at Yolani School, isn't that correct? Yes, she worked there and she was she was a fun development director. There we go. Yes. Yes. And of course, that's important before we switch over to Hinda now. That's important because, you know, Yolani School now has a direct relationship with Gerrit Middle School and with Polo Loveli because they recruit kids into the wonderful KAI program, which I think was seven years, but even expanding further, where kids get summers at Yolani and much many other things. And during the pandemic, there were food drives, etc, etc. So, you know, Yolani School is doing a has a wonderful, wonderful connection to Polo Loveli and to Gerrit and other schools. And also, Sacred Hearts had a program called KAI. And they also have a connection. I'm not sure they have started up yet again after the pandemic, but both those schools, Yolani and Sacred Heart should be applauded. Okay, so moving over to Hinda. So, what do you do as a vice president working with Cliff in the middle school foundation? And also, you know, what kind of events do you do? And I was privileged to work with you on one event where we were parking cars for one of those lovely Buddhist temples, but we were parking. People were parking themselves. We were just charging admission to that Gerrit Middle School parking lot. And that was a lot of fun. But I'm sure there are other kind of activities that you're doing to promote education in this wonderful Polo Lo Valley. So I'm going to let you talk about this, about the events and the things that you're doing ongoing. Thank you. Well, being a parent, I went to one of the parent orientations, I guess it was, and somebody it might have even been Cliff at the time, got up and spoke about the foundation. And I'm the type of person that always likes to be involved with things and anything to help the students. So it sounded really good. So I've been with the foundation for a long time. I want to say it's only middle school in Hawaii that has a foundation of a public school. And basically everything that we do is for the staff and students to better the school. And you're right, Carl, it's a school that has really good grades and good test scores. Because one of the things that our fearless leader, Principal Dr. Kuba, says to the kids is don't be ordinary. Be extraordinary. And I love that. And that's really been fostered into the kids. And what we do as a foundation is we try and help in any way. So for instance, there's a challenger course that the sixth graders and the eighth graders go to out in Ewa Beach. And the foundation helps to pay for that. We help to pay for incentives for the students. You know, during the pandemic, the teachers worked really hard, extra hard, especially on video. So we were able to help the teachers with a little appreciation. The after school program, which is an amazing little secret, it's Kulia All Stars. Every year they put on minus COVID a musical. And so the foundation will help to pay for the rehearsal snacks, things like that. We've helped with the eighth grade banquet at the end of the year. So we really are open to helping in whatever way the school might tell us they need help. The students might tell us we need help, or we might offer suggestions. And then we do fundraising. Yes. So one of the things I wanted to press you on Hinnick is I was able to, I think you arranged for me to see one day the play. And I came to the school and there was a full play being produced. And I could you expand about that because I think that you know, theater really I'm you know, we were lucky enough to have a Honolulu Theater for Youth. But what most people don't know is that there's a National Shakespeare Festival in New York. And there have been in the last 10 years four local kids from Hawaii who have won this national festival put on by the English. That is, you know, from the English that are that have a nonprofit here in the United States. And most recently it was won by this last year by a woman from a young woman from St. Andrews Priory. And so, you know, under the you know, there's a wonderful head of school there called Ruth Fletcher. And she just does wonderful things at St. Andrews Priory. But so how do you think how do you see the kids being impacted by this theater program? The theater program to be clear is after school. So it's all voluntary. And let me tell you, right now, just so you know, current school year, there's 291 students, which is amazingly low. It's a small little school. There's 25 teachers. Everybody knows each other, like I said. And the free after school program, the focus is homework. But afterwards they have all kinds of activities they can choose between cooking, arts and crafts, computers, snacks to get as well. But the theater, which is all musicals, that's on top of everything else. So they might go to cooking, they might do their snacks. But the kids and a lot of involved parents are also sewing their costumes. They're making their background using their art skills. They are practicing their lines, practicing their singing. And as a matter of fact, right now they're getting just now starting the auditions for Lion King, which is going to be held at the end of the school year. So they basically spend from September all the way till May rehearsing. And this is on their own time. This is on weekends. This is wonderfully committed kids and wonderfully committed after school staff. It's the Kulia All Stars, which is actually only in six middle schools in all of Hawaii. So Jared's really fortunate. And it impacts the kids in such amazing ways, their self confidence, their ability to shine and be just like Dr. Kuba says extraordinary. And they get standing ovations. It's really amazing. It's great to see them just flourish. Well, it sounds like you have a major middle school, an extraordinary principal. And this question goes to Cliff. So how are you going to celebrate this man? I understand you're going to celebrate this man. So how are you going to do that? We are planning a foundation dinner on November 18th this year at the Japanese Chamber of Commerce. We've contacted a lot of people and Dr. Kuba was selected as the best middle school teacher in the whole state. Principal. Principal. And we didn't get to honor him because of COVID. So we're very excited. And a lot of people are planning this wonderful event. So please let everybody know about our event and would love to have everybody come. November 18th. And where is it going to be? This this celebration of Dr. Kuba? At the Japanese Chamber of Commerce. Japanese Cultural Center in Baratangya. Yes. On the 18th of November. Like that old skit, you know, the Bill Cosby did about the Bible, you know, where he's talking to talking to God. He's no. And something comes out of the air. I'm hearing things in the air coming to you. I'm much like much, much, much like God like from the side clip. It's really, really wonderful. You know what I, you know, having a wife and two daughters, you know, around me most of the time, you know, I kind of hear these things from the side and say, okay, what are they saying now? But that's fearless leader. That's his wife. Yes, there we go. There we go. So, you know, are there prices for these tickets? And you know, it's so wonderful that you're celebrating a DOE principle because there's not much of that in Hawaii. And I think there should be more of this. And you know, and maybe, you know, Jera can be seen as the model, you know, middle school in Hawaii. So is I guess my question is, you know, are you expecting parents and are you expecting people from the community? And if someone wants to get a ticket, where do they go? I mean, and how much is a ticket? I guess those are two questions. Who do you talk to and where to go? And yeah, it's open to the public. Anybody who's affiliated with Jared, it could be alumni, it could be parents, it could be families or maybe not affiliated, but you just want to support. It's absolutely open. Everyone's welcome. It's $80 for regular ticket, $65 for the staff. And we want to encourage the staff of course. And everybody is welcome. Dr. Kuba has been involved with a lot of different DOE schools, Kalani, Alawai. You name it. He's also been in the main office at DOE. So it's a fundraiser. So we hope to raise money to help the students and help the school. We also, if I can just interject, Give-A-Loha is next week. I mean, sorry, next week is September at Foodland and we have for the first time ever, Jared as organization that you can donate money through Give-A-Loha at the cashier. So you just tell the cashier 7-9-1-3-0 or that you want to donate to Give-A-Loha to Jared Middle School Foundation. And that and our fundraiser dinner are going to be really good ways you can help the community support the school. That sounds wonderful. And it's great to support public education, especially with your wonderful superintendent Keith Hayashi. I want to also say, and I want to inspire another story from Cliff. And I know that you did you say that you came to Polo Lo in 1951? Yes. And I think that Jared Middle School, of which you were the President Foundation, didn't start until 1955, if I'm not mistaken. But so you were there even before this school that you're now set as a president. But just to give you a brief story, then I'm going to ask you to hopefully don't inspire another story about Polo Lo. Years and years ago, there a friend of mine named Bill, who was passing by that institution called W&M, which used to be on 10th Street. Now it's right next to, you know, City Mill. And he always would buy French fries and a Coke. And that time that cost a dime. And one day he forgot his money got up there and the people at W&M and really the Aloha spirit and the spirit that you have been describing about traditional Polo Lo just gave it to him and said, you know, I'm sure you'll pay me back. And sure enough, my friend Bill went home to his house, got the dime after school and paid them back. You know, he didn't want to miss his French fries and Coke. And that's a story that came to me recently. I think it's wonderful. But Cliff, do you have any more stories like that about Polo Lo when you are not beefing and not eating popcorn and movie and watching movies? Well, you know, it's too bad I'm too old because Jared wasn't built when I needed a good middle school. So I my neighbor and I used to walk all the way to Kamiki Intermediate. And so it would have been so much easier if we had our Jared intermediate. I like to say that Jared got started because we also had way back then a wonderful principle, Mr. Asami. Mr. Asami was only five feet seven, about 140 pounds. And yet he's on the circle of honor from the University of Hawaii, where he played offensive guard. He was such a wonderful person. When I went there and I met him, the kids just loved him. So one day after we got started with SCBM, I walk into his office and I said, You know, Eolani and Punahua have foundation. Why can't Jared have a foundation also? And he looked me in the eye and he says, Clifford, you're right. Let's do it. And a week later, we had our first luncheon. And right after that, everything started rolling. So yeah, go ahead. Sorry. No, so Jared has been left with so many great principles. And Mr. Asami and Mr. Reed Kuba, just great example of that. Well, this show is now we have run out of time. I wanted to thank you both, Cliff and Hinda, for your support of Polola Valley and for the many stories. And also to include, you know, Betty White from Sacred Hearts and of course, the wonderful Allison Blocking Ship, which contributed so much to Polola Valley from Eolani School. So thank you both. And I have thoroughly enjoyed this and I hope you have too. Thank you and contact the school if you have any questions or would like tickets for the foundation dinner. Well said. Thank you. Thank you, Carl.