Good morning, everyone.

Welcome.

Councilman Okimoto, can you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

Thank you so much.

Councilman Wokimoto, would you like to introduce your guest giving us the message of Aloha?

Thank you, Chair Aloha, and good morning, everyone.

This morning I am so honored to introduce our Message of Aloha presenter, President Jared Hester, who is the recently appointed president and CEO of the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Joining him today is his beautiful wife Priya.

President Hester previously held the roles of Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of the PCC and took on this new responsibility on May 1st.

A native of New Zealand, President Hester worked in Auckland for the administration of the church system for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints throughout the South Pacific, which included Samoa, Fiji, Kiribati, and Tonga before coming here to Hawaii.

Jared and his family moved here and made Hawaii their home in twenty thirteen.

Throughout the center, you will find students who are from Samoa, Tonga, Autoroa, Fiji, Hawaii, and even other parts of the world, like the Philippines, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and even our council member to Paula, you see an employee of PCC.

Local kids are there too.

Anyone who steps foot onto the Polynesian Cultural Center will immediately feel the warmth and aloha spirit there.

It is like no other place on Earth.

Outside of service, you might find Jared spending time with his family, enjoying a friendly competition of pickleball, although friendly is the operative word according to his wife Priya.

Aloha, my Kaka Kow.

Aloha.

It's an absolute pleasure to be here with you today.

I'm uh I'm not used to these type of situations.

Um, my preference is normally to be in the back of house playing with numbers and spreadsheets.

My background is an accounting, and uh recently, three months ago, they've asked me to fill this new role, and so I'm I'm learning to be a little bit more front of house and have to speak with a lot more people and shake a lot more hands and share a lot more of aloha.

And uh so it's my my privilege and pleasure to be with you today.

Uh I've been asked to share a little message on aloha, and coming from the Polynesian cultural center, uh, that's a little daunting because aloha is very uh precious to us.

It's it's what we're about.

And so I take that very seriously in terms of sharing that that message.

And I've written it out so that I can try and say it properly, so please bear with me.

But um, it really is the essence of what the the PCC, the Polynesian Cultural Center exists for.

From Aotearoa from the mountains and the waters of the land that shaped me as a as a young man and as a child through to coming here in Hawaii, which is continues to teach and shape me now.

Um I have learned that we are bound together by values older and deeper than place.

In Olelo Hawaii, aloha is formed from two words, aloh, meaning presence or face to face, and ha, breath of life.

And if you take that back, that's it's actually from its roots, if I've understood correctly, it's in the presence of or face to face with face to face with deity.

And so it's a sacred word.

Um to greet another with aloha is to acknowledge that we share the same sacred breath.

It is more than a feeling, it is a decision to see the divine worth and the divine worth in the person before us and to act accordingly.

This understanding is shared across all of Polynesia.

In different islands, we hear it through but through the same heartbeat.

Aloha, if you're from Samoa, or Ofa from Tonga, or Aroha, if you're from New Zealand.

Among the Maori people of Aotearoa, that shared breath is made visible in the Hongie.

Now you may have seen this a few times, where noses are pressed together and foreheads are pressed together, and then a breath is shared, the breath of life.

And in doing so, in that quiet moment, the boundary between self and others is softened, and life is exchanged through that breath.

Shared between people.

When Olala Hawaii experts speak of living aloha, they reach back to this deeper sense, the practice of recognizing and honoring life in another.

Aloha at its core is a spiritual concept.

The spirit of aloha is connected to deity.

It is not simply a cultural idea or a warm emotion.

It is a sacred way of seeing and relating to one another, that reaches beyond the human and toward the divine.

It is the quiet courage to seek understanding before seeking advantage, and to treat every person as one who carries that same sacred breath we do.

When we have aloha, we have charity.

If we substitute the word aloha for charity, we can read, and aloha suffereth long and is kind and envyeth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in truth, beareth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Aloha is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever.

At the Polynesian Cultural Center, for more than 60 years, we have sought to live this truth.

Every day, under a simple yet profound motto of one Ohana sharing aloha.

We are one family, students, employees, kupuna, and our guests from every corner of the earth bound by that same shared breath of aloha.

Our vision is clear and aspirational at the PCC.

It is to spread aloha around the world.

That is why we exist.

We do this by inviting visitors to experience the cultures, diversity, and spirit of Polynesia in a unique and uplifting way that blesses and inspires all who come.

Each day we strive to make sure our guests leave not only with the memories of being at the PCC, but also carrying a little more of that sacred breath with them.

So that when they return home to their homes, their families, their workplaces and their communities, they are sharing that aloha that they have received from being here in Hawaii.