POLYNESIAN CULTURAL CENTER DELAYS LEI DAY CONTEST

May 7 is New Deadline for Entries in the Fourth Annual Competition

Laie, HI - (April 26, 2004) - Each year since 2000, the Polynesian Cultural Center has hosted a competition for local residents and visitors to display and share the beauty of the lei. This year, to encourage even more participants, the competition has been moved to Friday, May 7th, and an additional category for multicultural lei has been added.

All entries must be registered in the PCC's Hawai'i village by 12 p.m., May 7, 2004, to be considered. There is a $10.00 fee per entry.

"We wanted to hold our lei day celebration later, so that community members can spend more time on their lei and improve on ideas they already shared on May 1st," said Keith Awai, manager of the Hawai'i village.

As part of the festivities, there will also be lei making for guests in the village, as well as Li Hing pineapple tasting in addition to the usual taro sampling.

Categories this year include seeds and shells, leaves and ferns, ribbons and artificial flower, plumeria, fresh flower and multicultural. Guests will again judge the most popular category, while a panel of PCC judges will judge all others. Prizes will be awarded to the best lei in each category, with first place receiving $100, second $75, and third place $50.

Everyone is invited to come share in the beauty of the lei whether they are entering a lei or just checking out new designs. For more information, please call (808) 293-3121.

Founded in 1963 as a non-profit organization, the PCC has entertained more than 30 million visitors by preserving and portraying the spirit, culture and people of Polynesia to the rest of the world. More important is the mission of the PCC, which supports the educational mission of Brigham Young University-Hawai'i and provides an extension of the classroom in a workplace setting. Since its establishment, the PCC has employed more than 12,000 BYU-Hawai'i students. As a non-profit organization, 100 percent of the PCC's revenue is used for daily operations and to support the students who earn their tuition, room and board, and books. The PCC also provides significant financial support to elementary and secondary schools and to college students attending institutions of their choice besides BYU-Hawai'i.