Building Bridges of Friendship

The Bridge and Na Lei Aloha

Last Friday, I had the opportunity to attend the 4th Annual Bridge of Friendship sponsored by Na Lei Aloha Foundation, which is affiliated with the Shinnyo-en Buddhist Order.  Na Lei Aloha is better known for its lantern floating ceremony that happened over Memorial Day weekend.  The Bridge is a half-day networking event that brings together non-profit, government, business, and religious leaders, officers, and members, with the purpose of building bridges of friendship that will help to make Hawaii a better place.  About 300 people attended this event at the Hawaii Prince Hotel.  As always, I am thankful to work for allowing me to attend this great event.

Many thanks to Bishop Isao Ito who flew in from Japan to join us and the hard-working and much-caring staff of Na Lei Aloha for putting on a first-class event!

Famous Attendees

Here are just some of the recognizable faces who attended:  Paula Akana, who served as emcee; Ramsay Taum, of the UH School of Travel Industry Management, and a facilitator; Dr. Jon Matsuoka, Dean of the Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work at UH Manoa; Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona, who was a keynote speaker; Rick Blangiardi, General Manager at KGMB9; State Reps. Jon Riki Karamatsu, Karen Awana, and Tom Brower; former State Sen. Bert Kobayashi; former State Rep. Sam Aiona, who heads the State’s Office of Community Services; musician and author Brother Noland; Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi and Councilman-elect Duke Bainum.  All in all, a cornucopia of diverse individuals.

Some Lessons

Here are some lessons and quotes that I took away from the Bridge (my favorites in bold):

• “‘Aloha’ is the art and spirit of giving and receiving.” – Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona
• “Words of encouragement can ward off discouragement.” – Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona
• “We have to move from apathy to aspiration.  To do that, we need inspiration.” – Ramsay Taum
• “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” – futurist Alan Kay, as quoted by Ramsay Taum
• The worst thing that could be done to create a culture of “we” and a sustainable fuiture in Hawaii is to do nothing. – as agreed upon by many of the groups in our brainstorming sessions
• Doing nothing hurts; Communication connects; Healing Hawaii – haiku written by my group to embody our thoughts on how we think we can move forward to do good

I think many of us can agree that we want to make Hawaii and our world a better place.  Whether or not you attended the Bridge, you can make a difference.  Please look at ways large and small you can better our world.  It can be as simple as saying hello to a neighbor or co-worker you haven’t spoken to in a while.

Mahalo!

Tagged as: na lei aloha