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SOUTH JORDAN — It's graduation season and a popular way to honor your graduate is gifting them with a Hawaiian lei. You see stacks of them sometimes mixed with money, candy, or ribbons, at high schools and colleges all across the state.
The tradition of the lei is more than just a garland of flowers for one South Jordan woman. Leis represent a connection to Kamie Afo Aiono's Pacific Island heritage.
During the pandemic, she started making leis as a side hustle and it's taken off!
This graduation season – she's busier than ever – and using those skills to teach others how to make their own creations.
Inside Aunty's Hawaiian Kitchen in Riverton, Afo-Aiono can't wait to share her art with a new crop of lei makers.
"I'd like to say Aloha to everybody! My name is Kamie and I'm the owner of Paradise Porch. I just wanted to bring tropical florals here to Utah. A little bit of home and that's why we do this. Tonight, we will be doing our haku lei po'o workshop."
All ages and skill levels are welcome to learn, laugh, and eat.
Jennifer Frandsen is the owner of Aunty's Hawaiian Kitchen.
"We've got teri chicken, garlic chicken, chicken katsu, kalua pig, short ribs, garlic shrimp. Garlic chicken is the house favorite," Frandsen said.
She says food is always part of the equation to bring these groups together.
"Leis and flowers and all of that is such a connection to who we are as a people – as Hawaiian people and Polynesian people – and so it's been really special to be able to help her expand that a little bit," Frandsen said.
Afo Aiono picked up the basics of lei-making from niece, Camilla Falatea.
"She used to work at Polynesian Cultural Center," Afo Aiono said. "For me, I feel like it's floral therapy. I just like to create things and share with other people."
Her work is in high demand. From birthdays, weddings, and baptisms, but most of all for graduations.
"Everyone can have a lei. Everyone can give a lei," Afo Aiono said. "We start prepping probably April, May, June."
She works with farmers in Hawaii and Costa Rica to import tropical florals like orchids, ti leaf, and Birds of Paradise to Utah.
"I've always loved having tropical leis. They're either hard to get or super expensive and so I just wanted to bring them to the community," Afo Aiono said.
Her small team has nearly 500 orders to fill for graduation lei. But they're expecting more as people request last-minute gifts.
"So, our hands are falling off. Our fingers are tired. But it's worth it," Afo-Aiono said.
This labor of love is rooted in Afo-Aiono's Polynesian heritage.
Her dad, Toa Afo, was from American Samoa, and her mom, Sylvia, is from Granger, Utah.
"He was a Polynesian entertainer," Afo-Aiono said. "They stayed here for 45 years. I'm getting teary-eyed because I just lost him in February."
She said she keeps his memory alive by sharing her gift with others.
"Our family always gathers on the porch that's why I named the business, Paradise Porch because I wanted a touch of paradise," she said. "That's why I like to do the classes because I think if you create then you gift that, it means more to you than the other person."
Afo-Aiono has this advice if you receive a lei: don't throw them away, it's like you're throwing away a gift. Traditionally, people would bury it or throw it into the ocean.
If you're interested in attending a lei-making workshop, the next one is scheduled for June 20th.
