A MESSAGE FROM

PRESIDENT BRIAN AND PRESIDENT-ELECT CAROLANN

Aloha kākou,

We hope that everyone who attended last Tuesday’s meeting with Mayor Kawakami as speaker will agree that he was an excellent presenter. As this Rotary year draws to a close, Brian has been looking back over the past year as President with gratitude and pleasure as we ready for what will certainly be another great year.  As you’ve heard, we, along with several other members of the Club, recently returned from the Rotary International Convention (RICON) in Taipei, Taiwan. A memorable highlight was the gala dinner hosted by our sister club, the Rotary Club of Taipei, which was a leader in planning the RICON.  We were also able to meet with a potential new member from Minneapolis, who will be moving to Honolulu for a new job as an architect starting in July.  He was a very engaged young man from a family with deep roots in Rotary, so we hope that he will choose to join our Club.  As a fun bonus, our recent guest speaker Kai Kahele was the pilot for Brian’s trip to Los Angeles en route to Taipei.

Reflecting on the amazing year that we have had and the incredible amount of support that our leadership team received, we are greatly humbled by the opportunity to lead this distinguished organization.  We have immense respect for our Club, its many talented members, and for your great ideas to grow and improve our Club experience in the coming year.  Thank you for all that you each have contributed to what we truly consider to be a very successful year. 

As we prepare for the Change of Command, we also take note of the many celebrations of our country’s 250th anniversary and the attending Fourth of July festivities that are scheduled throughout our island and the country at large.  As Rotarians, we endeavor to be engaged members of our community, including participation in events that highlight our shared civic connection, independent of race, religion, class, creed or origin.  There are many more things that unite us than divide us, and being Rotarians gives all of us daily opportunities to embody those ideals.

We appreciate that many of you have already signed up to manage the kegs and cans at the Beerfest this Saturday on the Bishop Museum’s great lawn. You are also invited to gather at Al Linton’s Fourth of July pancake breakfast the following Saturday, which many might remember as an annual tradition.  Finally, we hope you will join us this coming Tuesday for the Change of Command ceremony as we “pass the gavel” from the current team on to the next and continue to create a bright future for our community, our world, and our Rotary Club of Honolulu.

Mahalo nui loa,

Brian Dunkel and Carolann Biederman 

President and President Elect 

The Rotary Club of Honolulu

VOLUNTEER REMINDER 

Date: Sat. June 27, 2026

Time: 4:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Location: Bishop Museum, Great Lawn

To help you prepare for volunteering please note the following:

• Please arrive at 4:00pm at the Bishop Museum, there will be an orientation at 4:15 that you will want to attend.
• For those who are new to this event please note that we do not setup and we do not break down.  Our job is to pour beer and leave.
• Wear closed toe shoes please.
• We would like all volunteers to wear Rotary T-Shirts.  If you have a Rotary shirt, please wear it, if you need a T-Shirt, please contact Tom or our Club administer, Lee LaBrash with your size.
• We stop pouring beer at 8:50. If you do not stop pouring beer at this time and the liquor Commission sees you, we could get cited and possibly lose our license.
• Bring growlers or a container to take home beer.  When the event is over the Distributor cannot resell open kegs, so they dump it and they are happy for us to take it.
• For those of you who will be bringing other volunteers with you, please share this information with them and let Tom know so that he can add them to the list.

Register to volunteer HERE

In an update about our Community Service Project, Nancy Youngren and those who helped with this project were invited to visit to Kukui Center for a big MAHALO! Due to other duties, only Nancy was able to attend on our behalf.  Mahalo, Nancy for this project and attending!

Through this project the Rotary Club of Honolulu was able to work with several agencies through the Kukui Center to distribute backpacks to Kids Hurt Too Hawaii, Chromebooks to Hale Kipa and Fire Tablets and Chromebooks to Hawaii Literacy.

MAHALO! 

View photos here

Read Hale Kipa's Thank You letter here

Rotary Club of Honolulu and Rotary District 5000 Foundation members celebrate the $15,000 AARP Community Challenge grant with AARP representatives. The grant will help to complete Centennial Park Waikīkī.

Photo credit: AARP Hawai’i