If you feel a tropical breeze in Caldwell this week, don’t be surprised.
Once again, for the fifth year, visitors from Hawaii are traveling to the borough to pay their respects to a leader they honor every year, without fail, in their native land.
Caldwell’s own President Grover Cleveland’s birthplace is their destination, and April 30 has been set aside in Hawaii as the official Hawaii Restoration Day.
To many Hawaiians, Cleveland was not just a president, but a peaceful emissary from the mainland.
Not even the great expanse of America and the wide Pacific Ocean could deter President Grover Cleveland, our 22nd and 24th President, from working on an issue he believed was important to the very notion of justice – helping Hawaii’s royal Queen Liliuokalani.
Dr. Haaheo L.A. Guanson, a professor at the University of Hawaii and a peacemaker for the non profit group Pacific Justice Reconciliation, said though her journey is long she arrives refreshed every year.
“I feel very connected to President Grover Cleveland,” she said. “I am so moved by the courage and commitment he demonstrated to our Queen Liliuokalani, and to the people of Hawaii.”
Guanson said although the islands officially became part of the United States as a territory and later a state many years ago, Native Hawaiians honor Cleveland for being open minded enough to investigate the royal government that once ruled Hawaii.
“He wanted to help them, and he wasn’t just doing that because he was a nice guy,” she said. “He sent a representative, James Blount, to Hawaii to find out what the truth was about our royalty.”
After his visit, Blount told Cleveland he believed the royal family was running Hawaii in a just and positive manner, but, in spite of the President’s recommendations, the U.S.A. took over Hawaii and made it an official territory.
“We visit because we respect him and appreciate his integrity,” said Guanson.
Today, there is a state wide day of honor for Grover Cleveland every year in Hawaii, called Hawaiian Restoration Day.
“About 5 years ago we were invited to Washington, D.C. to review a document that was supposedly written by President Cleveland,” she added. “It asked for a day of prayer for the Hawaiian people on April 30.”
Fellow Hawaiian visitor Dr. Kahu Kaleo Patterson, the President of Pacific Justice and
Reconciliation Center and Professor of Peace Studies, said his visits to Caldwell have been illuminating.
“When we decided to make the first visit, we didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “All we knew was that Grover Cleveland was born in New Jersey. Little did we know that the people of New Jersey would be just as good and gracious and hardworking as Grover Cleveland.”
This year, the Caldwell Downtown Committee decided to do something special for the Hawaiian visitors.
Caldwell council member Joe Norton, who is the chair of the Caldwell Downtown Committee, said he wanted to do something special for the visiting Hawaiians.
“This is one the first steps in putting together an annual schedule of events that will turn Caldwell into a destination place where families can come and spend a day and an evening in our downtown enjoying what the community has to offer,” said Norton.
“Caldwell is a welcoming and warm place. Bringing our two communities together is a great thing for Caldwell and for Hawaii.”
So get your island style ready, for on April 29, there will be Luau right in the borough.
The First Annual Presidential Luau will be at the First Presbyterian Church at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday night.
What makes this evening so special is that this church, at 226 years old, was founded by none other than President Grover Cleveland’s father. Cleveland’s father, the Reverend Richard Falley Cleveland, was the minister at the First Presbyterian Church from 1834-1841.
This historic and fun evening is being partially funded by the Kiwanis Caldwell Club of West Essex and the Caldwell Council Downtown Committee, and all proceeds from the event will go to the Grover Cleveland Birthplace Association.
Grover Cleveland’s birthplace was built in 1832 as the Manse, or Pastor’s residence, for the first Presbyterian Church at Caldwell.
According to the NJDEP, The Grover Cleveland Birthplace State Historic Site is “the only house museum in the country dedicated to the interpretation of President Cleveland’s life. It is the nation’s leading repository of Cleveland artifacts and political memorabilia. The Grover Cleveland Birthplace is listed on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places.”
As they say in Hawaii, Mahalo!
