[Note: When writing this post, I misread the news clipping referring to the “first of the annual song contests….”

I thought that it meant the 1930 contest was the first year the contests were held.

But the contests go back almost a decade farther, beginning with a competition at the School for Boys in 1921.

On rereading, the story refers to the girls contest coming first in 1930, before the boys song contest, as they were held separately until the 1950s.

So references to 1930 being the first song contest were simply incorrect.]

This year, Kamehameha Schools presented their 101st Song Contest, what has morphed over the years into a major event for the school and the community.

While looking through old newspapers this morning for something unrelated, I ran into this news clipping from the Honolulu Advertiser (Nov 4, 1930) announcing “the first of the annual song contests of the Kamehameha Schools….”

This first contest was a competition limited to the girls school.

That was interesting enough. But then I scanned the story, and was very surprised to see that my mother, Helen Yonge, would preside over the event in her role as president of the girls’ student council.

It’s a little nugget of local history that caught me totally off guard!