By KIMBERLY TELKER

On Aug. 24, Joanne Wilder brought Hawaii to church. Following the 10 a.m. Sunday service at Wildermere Beach Congregational Church, U.C.C. in Milford, the Hamden resident emceed the annual summer picnic, but brought more to it than hamburgers and watermelon. 

Instead of coffee hour, parishioners gathered outside to blue skies, blue picnic tables, purple leis, and the slow rhythmic sounds of Hawaii. Wilder, who attends worship services at the church with her husband, Dan, grew up in Hilo, Hawaii, and teaches a free Christian praise hula class to members of the community at the church.  Members of the class, including church Treasurer Dorene Murphy, performed for an all-ages audience. The crowd of nearly 40 people was silent through the whole routine, except for an emphatic “Woo hoo!” from Murphy’s husband, Ed, toward the middle.

The Hawaiian beats, the bright colors of leis, sarongs, hair flower pieces, and flower anklets helped to draw attention from nearby residents who passed by on bicycles, in cars, or by foot, en route to the shoreline at Walnut Beach. One man who called himself Jimmy even sat down to watch.  The event also attracted members from out-of-town and even out of state, many of them native Hawaiians. The picnic was advertised on the website for Halawai, a Hawaiian cultural club based in New York. At the mention of Wilder and hula performances, word spread fast.

Janine Ziegler, a native of Lanai, Hawaii, came to the event with her husband, Braeden and their three-year-old son, Dylan. She performed a hula solo and provided music with an ipu, Hawaii’s native drum. The Zieglers currently reside in Shelton, Conn.  Other musical offerings were provided by Mercedes “Mercy” Howard, another Hawaiian national, of Torrington, Conn. The salt-and-peppered lady sang along to the music she strummed on a ukulele. She played humorous ditties as well as slow ballads. She dedicated one of them to the many mothers in the crowd. “but no tears,” she warned.

“This is definitely not your typical church picnic,” says emcee Joanne Wilder. “Blending in a little bit of Hawaii makes it interesting and different,” she says. At the sight of all the food, though, she smiled and deemed the picnic “very Hawaiian.”  Near the other end of the churchyard were long tables lined by fuchsia cloths filled with spreads of baked chicken, lasagna, mashed potatoes, spinach casserole, and ambrosia tart.  Lee Hurst, the church Trustee chairman, took the role of barbeque extraordinaire, grilling browned hamburgers and hotdogs all afternoon.  Hurst’s wife, Marilyn, organized the whole event. She is the church chairperson for the Special Events Committee.  

The event went until 4 o’clock and forded many new friendships. Many of the Conn. members of the Halawai group didn’t know any other local Hawaii natives.  Phone numbers and e-mail addresses were exchanged among Hawaiians and parishioners. “It was great to meet you,” sincerely bounced back and forth among picnickers. 

Despite the church picnic being a much-anticipated tradition to parishioners, Aug. 24 marked the first one at Wildermere Beach Congregational Church, U.C.C. since the late 1990s. According to church member and Publicity chairperson Laureen Warner, this year’s attendance was another resuscitation. “We haven’t had a picnic as big as this one for 20 years,” she says. “This is definitely a sign of rebirth for our church.”  

Wildermere Beach Congregational Church, U.C.C. is located at 133 Broadway in Milford and offers Christian worship services at 10 a.m. each Sunday, led by Reverend John A. Thursby.  

Praise Hula takes place at the church on Wednesday at 7 p.m.. For more information, contact Joanne Wilder at (203) 288-4526.