Erika Tsuji
Reader Submitted

Nothing can stop Caroline Coleman, Children's Librarian at Kapolei Public Library, from hosting her Aloha Tofu Haiku Extravaganza not even a tsunami! The original haiku contest grand finale was scheduled for Saturday, February 27th, but a natural disaster put the event on a 6-week hold, which fortunately didn't slow the momentum or minimize the crowd.

On Saturday, April 10th, over 150 people from all over the island joined to celebrate a mesh of traditional Japanese poetry and local kine tofu grinds. Mrs. Coleman came up with the idea for a Tofu Haiku competition while surfing the web because she wanted to do something that was fun and promoted local culture. She received 290 haiku entries from Oahu keiki ages 7-17 years old. Aloha Tofu president Paul Uyehara, Kapolei Library Branch Manager Stacie Kanno, State Senator Mike Gabbard, and MidWeek's Ron Nagasawa all served as judges for the competition. The haiku contest winners were: Trent Domingo (age 7), Joy Libarios (age 7), Malia Collins (age 7), Sarah Yamaguchi (age 8), Allyson Yamamoto (age 12), Andie Kapua Miller (age 13), Joshua Nicely (age 14), and Tiana Magoncia-Allen (age 17). Prizes were donated by Aloha Tofu and Wet 'N Wild Hawai'i. The grand prize was a 10-person birthday party at the water park!

Drawing crowds to the Tofu Haiku event was Nyla Fujii-Babb, whose story-telling brought smiles, laughter, and local food topics the keiki could relate to, like spam, musubi, mochi, and of course, tofu. There was also an abundance of free tofu samples of many varieties, compliments of Aloha Tofu, some prepared by Mr. Uyehara and others made by Senator Gabbard and his wife Carol. Here are the 2 first-place haiku poems:

Happy Little Square

Sitting nicely on the plate

Delicious Tofu!

By Sarah Yamaguchi, Age 8

Versatile tofu

A Ninja white protein source

Steam, bake, fry or soup

By Kapua Miller, Age 13

Please contact me if I can help you. My phone is 586-6830 and e-mail is sengabbard@capitol.hawaii.gov. Mahalo for the privilege of serving you!