Puka`ana o ka lā (“Rise Up!”) Awards
The annual Puka`ana o ka lā award presentation recognizes and honors those who have made longstanding and significant contributions toward the promotion of wellness of the body, mind, and spirit to our people and community.
The Puka`ana o ka lā Awards were established in 2014. Previous awardees include Clarence Liu, Rose Nakamura and Kawika Patterson in 2014, and Ho`oipo De Cambra, Kalani Brady, M.D. and Frances Kakugawa in 2015.
Sister Maria Rosario Daley
October 22, 2016
Sister Maria Rosario was born in Albany, N.Y. After receiving her B.A. degree from St. Rose College, she entered the Maryknoll Sisters 72 years ago. Her first missionary assignment, in 1984, was to the Territory of Hawai`i.
She taught at Maryknoll High School in Honolulu, St. Ann's in Kaneohe, and St. Augustine's in Wailuku, Maui. Through the years,she taught, touched, and empowered countless lives. Alumni from those schools continue sharing their lives with her, inviting her to important family events, and sending her photos of their grand- and great-grandchildren. After leaving the classroom, she earned a Master's Degree in Mathematics from Boston College and worked for the Honolulu Catholic Dioceses, installing the first computer system and training the staff how to use it.
Presently, she considers her primary assignment praying for our world and giving thanks to God for her 93 years of life on earth and all the octogenarians she still calls "my pupils."
Gregory Pai, PhD
October 22, 2016
Gregory Pai has practiced meditation since the mid-70s in the Tibetan Buddhist, Zen Buddhist, and Vipassana or Insight Meditation traditions. His teachers include Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Robert Aitken, Sayadaw U Pandita, Sayadaw U Silananda and Sayadaw U Kundala in the Burmese tradition, as well as Jon Kabat-Zinn. He was trained at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center and currently teaches a public meditation class at the Broken Ridge Korean Temple. He has also taught meditation to the mentally disabled at the Hawaii State Hospital, Kahi Mohala, Queens Hospital, as well as veterans at Tripler Hospital, and at the Center for Alternative Medicine at the University of Hawaii School of Medicine.
Currently retired, Dr. Pai served in the administrations of Gov. Benjamin Cayetano and John Waihee, as well as Commissioner for the Hawaii State Public Utilities Commission, and Chief Economist for First Hawaiian Bank.
Terry Shintani, MD, JD, MPH
October 22, 2016
Dr. Shintani received his master's degree in nutrition at Harvard University and both his medical degree and law degree at the University of Hawaii. His is board-certified in Preventive Medicine, and service as Professor and Associate Chair of the Dept of Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the John A. Burns School of Medicine. He has been appointed to the National Advisory Board of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, and is chair of the International Holistic Therapy Association, the Advisory Board of the Gandhi International Institute of Peace, and a member of the Council of Elders of the Native Hawaiian Healers.
He is best known for his promotion of health in the Hawaiian community and for his whole person health programs. One of his program won the highest national award from the U.S. Secretary of Health. He has written 12 books and was formally designated a "Living Treasure of Hawaii."