Five Years Old and Walking Taller

In 1999, Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame was entered in the annual Hawai`i Visitors & Convention Bureau's "Keep It Hawai`i" awards program. Our entry won a "Certificate of Merit". You may have seen the December 19 article about it in the Honolulu Advertiser. We presented our participation as a response to our own posed question: "What could be more important to keeping it Hawai`i, than historic preservation of Hawai`i' significant music culture?"

Some of the reasons we presented bear repeating: Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame and Museum is unique in its mission to bring into reality a single, permanent gathering place where kama`aina and visitors alike may come to learn about and enjoy Hawai`i's rich music tradition, and the historical role played by Hawai`i's composers, musicians and vocalists over the last century.

Since 1995, we are "walking taller" in the community carrying out the following public activities and projects to promote and perpetuate the musical culture of the Hawaiian people:

• induction into Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame, each year, of legendary Hawaiian musicians, composers, and vocalists of the last century, along with Na Lani `Eha, (The Royal Four), acknowledged Patrons of Hawai`i's music culture.
• public display of the Hall of Fame large koa exhibits.
• annual Hall of Fame concerts.
• Internet website: www.hawaiimusicmuseum.org
• "E Mele Kakou" (We Sing), children's course.

Your annual memberships, and additional donations, large and small, are our only source of income as a tax-exempt non-profit corporation. We believe that you who are members joined the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame and Museum because you, too, believe it's important to preserve and perpetuate Hawai`i's traditional music. Some of you who can do so have chosen to donate a gift of $200 every year as members of our sustaining group, The 200 Partners. To all of you new and renewing members, thank you for your continuing support, and for trusting us to keep our promises even though progress sometimes seems slow.

As we step across the threshold of new century, in a new Millennium, several large, important new projects are under consideration. If you have not yet decided whether to join Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame, either as a General Member or one of The 200 Partners, or you have not yet renewed your present membership for Year 2000, we're "asking for your order" now. Won't you come, walk even taller with us?