All-girl Stunt team claims first place

The Team USA All-Girl Cheer Team, which includes Hawai‘i Pacific University cheerleaders Lauren Loeb, Emily Myers, Savanna Sibley, Heather Turner, Chelsey Kannan, Stephanie Bibby, Brittany Barry, and Ashley Lewis, took first place world title at the 2010 International Cheer Union (ICU) World Championship in Orlando, Fla.

As Team USA’s contenders in the All-Girl Group Stunt competition, HPU’s All-Girl Stunt Group took first place. The stunt group consisted of Sibley, Myers, Loeb, and Turner.

“Winning the Gold for the All-Girl Premier was an amazing feeling,” Sibley said. “I can’t even begin to explain the emotions that were going through my head. This has not only been an experience of a lifetime but it is something I will carry with me as one of my greatest accomplishments. It consisted of a long and strenuous two weeks but now with it all said and done, it has been more than worth it.”

HPU Cheerleaders were specifically selected and invited to be part of the 24-member Team USA to represent the United States at the ICU World Championship. Cheerleaders from all over the U.S. are represented on Team USA. The ICU World Championship showcases the top cheerleaders from more than 60 nations from all continents.

HPU has long been known for having the most outstanding Division II Cheer and Dance teams in the nation. Immediately following the 2010 National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) and National Dance Alliance (NDA) Championships in Daytona Beach, Fla., on April 9, the HPU Cheerleaders traveled to Georgia and practiced for two weeks prior to the ICU competition on April 23 in Orlando.

The HPU Large Co-ed Cheer Team has won eight straight national titles (2003-2010). The HPU Small Co-Ed Cheer Team has won four consecutive national titles (2005-2008). The HPU All-Girl Cheer Team won its first national title at the 2009 competition. The HPU Dance Team has won five consecutive championships, totaling six titles overall (2004, 2006-2010).

Homeless plan splits community

Students attending the HPU Downtown Campus know about those people who hang out all day at Fort Street Mall with no place to go: The homeless. They ask for money and they seem to need help to get off the street.

The City of Honolulu and the Catholic Church are backing “The River Street Project” under the concept of “Housing First” for homeless.

They plan a 100-unit residence on city property, at River Street and Vineyard Boulevard, three blocks from the HPU campus.

The project would provide permanent shelter to homeless people with mental illnesses or drug problems and provide treatment. About 60 units would go to the homeless and 40 to the mentally ill.

The project has generated strong community opposition. About 200 Chinatown residents showed their opposition to the project at a March 28 rally.

On April 25, a rally will be held to support the project, starting at the Lady of Peace Cathedral on Fort Street Mall at 1 pm. The rally will start with a prayer service and then participants will march to the River Street site.

“I would encourage everyone who cares about homeless people in Hawai‘i to come to this rally to show their support for a “Housing First” River Street Residences, solution which has proven to work in helping homeless people get off the street and become stabilized,” said Marya Grambs, Executive Director of Mental Health America of Hawai‘i.

Supporters say this kind of project has helped homeless in Seattle and other big cities on the mainland, but many in the Downtown and Chinatown communities strongly oppose the plan.

“It is the right project in the wrong place,” said Victor Lim, owner of McDonalds on Fort Street Mall and chairman of Fort Street Mall Business Improvement District, adding: “This particular area has a lot of churches, and schools with young children”.

Since the medical treatment for the homeless in the planned apartments is strictly voluntary, people in and around Chinatown are concerned about their safety. Lim suggests building those units rather in industrial areas to not attract even more homeless people to downtown that could lead to increasing crime.

“There are security issues involved,“ says Karl Rhoads, State Rep for D-28th (Pālama, Chinatown, Downtown).

Patrick Downes from the Catholic church of Honolulu, who supports the project, said:

“This project will actually make the situation safer. Homeless people who are already sitting on the sidewalks will be put in residences and get
treatment.”

Ash cloud in Europe- millions of air travellers stranded across Europe

When I was reading the news a few days ago about the vulcano erruptions on iceland, I wasnt worried at all. As long as nobody gets in trouble due to lava I thought there wont be any affection.

Now, I am actually concerned by only this ash cloud. It pretty much is the reason why thousands of flights from and to Europe were cancelled and millions of air travellers stranded across Europe.

Europe's three biggest airports -- London Heathrow, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt -- were closed by the ash, leaving passengers stranded across the world as a global flight backlog built up.

My friend from Germany who is visiting right now and was supposed to fly out from Honolulu to San Francisco with a connection flight to Frankfurt, Germany, was not possible. Also some of my friends in South Africa are stranded or can not get a flight from Spain back to Berlin.

It is the biggest airspace shutdown since World War II, air traffic had controllers warned that the cloud was likely to cause fresh travel disruption.

Justifying the widespread airport closures aviation officials have explained that airplane engines could become clogged up and stop working if they tried to fly through the ash.

Even our German Chancellor Angela Merkel was stranded in Lisbon, Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva in Prague and a UN Security Council delegation cancelled a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo that would have flown out of Paris.

Hawaiian Airlines-not possible for foreigners?

I recently wanted to purchase tickets to Phoenix for less money than with Continental Airlines. It was at least 200 dollars cheaper than the price that Continental offered me.
The bad surprise: I was not able to pay with my credit card. Well, only with my "hawaiian" credit card.
Hawaiian Airlines does NOT accept international credit cards. So if you are a tourist, a non-citizen or just someone who does not own a hawaiian bank account means you can not fly with this airline??

The solution for me: Go to an atm mashine, get cash for a horrible price because the atm mashines charge you a lot of money each time you want to get a certain amount of money. Its not only the two dollars, I pay an additional fee of 6 Euro (9 DOllars) each time I get 200 dollars (sometimes at certain places 400 if Im lucky)

So I had to carry this huge amount of cash to Bank of Hawaii to deposit this money to finally be able to pay for my flight reservation from Honolulu to Phoenix.

Why do they make it so hard?
Why cant you just use your regular international credit card?
I am sure Hawaiian Airlines would be more succesful with being a little more flexible.

River Street Project Support

The River Street Project Rally is starting on April 25th on Fort Street Mall in front of the chapel at 1:30pm. I will give a short preview soon. Basically it is planned to build up apartements for homeless people in Downtown Honolulu and Chinatown. The city wants to build the 10-story facility on a lot next to Tin Hau Temple on River St., complete with 100 long-term rental units. About 60 units would go to the homeless and 40 to the mentally ill.There will be several reactions to this from both sides, for and again st the project. More information to follow...