Page 3 - MidWeek Leeward - Oct 27, 2021

OCTOBER 27, 2021 3
Pearl City High School Finds Some Historic ‘Purple Passion’
BY DON ROBBINS
campus when we hit some- thing hard. It looked like a piece of metal embedded about a couple feet deep into the hole. We dug it out with the help of a volunteer’s mud gun,” shares Villamil, a member of the PCHS class of 1977.
chose to dig our hole was quite a coincidence,” shares Mary Alejado Sensui, the Purple Tree Project chair- person and a member of the class of 1974. “It was pretty amusing.”
would unearth a Purple Pas- sion can? My daughter quick- ly Googled the can to see if it could possibly be from the ’70s when the school was built. Sure enough, it was!” Matsumoto shares. “This project was so special to me. My mom is from the class of ’74. I am from the class of 2001 and my daughter will graduate next year in 2022. Three generations of purple passion in this family! See- ing my mom Mary’s dreams come to reality and getting the chance to work with both her and my daughter on this, it’s really special. My mother has passed on a great sense of Pearl City pride in me and Ihopetopassitontomy daughter,Kacy,aswell,”Mat- sumoto declares.
An exciting occurrence took place on Oct. 9 at Pearl City High School, when a group of alumni, former teachers, current teachers, students and administrators got together to plant five purple (crepe myrtle) trees as a part of school’s 50th an- niversary celebration.
“It turned out to be an old, squashed metal soda can that read ʻPurple Passion.’ We were all amazed at what we had just discovered and dug up. A can of Purple Passion in the hole that we were prepping to plant one of our commemorative purple trees,” he adds.
She adds that project members hope future gradu- ates will eventually be able to see the purple trees from afar as a landmark indicating the presence of Pearl City High School.
“The trees represent the five decades of Pearl City High School beginning in 1971. The PCHS class of 1974, which is the first grad- uating class, sponsored the trees,” explains Barry Villa- mil, one of the participants.
Wendy Matsumoto holds the Purple Passion can with her daughter Kacy Honda at Pearl City High School. PHOTO COURTESY BARRY VILLAMIL
Sensui’s daughter, Wendy Matsumoto, was also excited to have freed and dusted off the historic can at the planting.
“I was working with one of the teams digging out a hole that overlooks scenic Pearl Harbor on the school
Purple Passion soda was a product of Canada Dry back in the early 1970s, and the uneartheditemcouldpossi- bly be around 50 years old,
nection. Pearl City High School, whose school col- ors are purple and white, unearths a can of purple Passion while planting Pur- ple crepe myrtle trees in celebration of the school’s
duction and popularity.
“It is our vision that our campuswouldbepurpleand to find it (the can) where we
“I had to take a moment and wrap my head around what a crazy coincidence that was. What are the odds that theexactspotthatwaschosen to plant one of the five trees
Villamil explains.
“What an amazing con-
50th anniversary,” he notes. The colorful and psyche- delic graphic design of the vintage Purple Passion dates back to the time of its pro-
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