Thanksgiving Imu

"It takes a village to raise a child"...

And one of the best examples of our Waimea village efforts is the Project Grad Thanksgiving Imu fundraiser.

Parents of the high school seniors prepare the high school imu (traditional Hawaiian cooking pit) and sell tickets. For $10 for every 15 lbs. of prepared food (a seasoned turkey, pork butts, rice pudding, etc.), community members can have their Thanksgiving feast cooked.
Yesterday afternoon, the food was accepted and loaded into baskets and placed into the imu to cook overnight.

Early this morning, parent volunteers opened the imu- shoveling away the sand, and removing the tarp.

The burlap bags and banana leaves covering the food were removed and because it started raining, the wooden skips were moved into the shed to facilitate pickup.

This was hard work- carrying the heavy, steaming baskets of food through the pouring rain.

The rain did not dampen spirits, however. The aroma of the food was heavenly! When all the food was removed, the imu was cleaned and will be ready for the Christmas cooking!

I was amazed by the cool identification system. Every basket had a metal ID tag and every bundle was clearly marked with the owner's name. A piece of paper with it's number was placed on each basket.

When the owners came to pick up their food, their bundle was located by basket number and name and brought to the pickup table.

And so it continued until the last bundles were claimed and another successful community fundraiser for our kids was completed!
Side note- the young man in the last picture and I directed traffic in the pouring rain. I always keep a water-resistant jacket in my car and it sure came in handy today! It was my Hawaii All-State Band jacket from the 2005 Macy's Parade!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!