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Polynesian Cultural Center

by ALOHA DEAN

The Polynesian Cultural Center, on Oahu's northeast shore at Laie, was built by labor missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1963 to allow students at the Church's nearby college (now named Brigham Young University-Hawaii) to keep alive and share their island heritage with visitors while working their way through school.
The Center's student employees come from an area that covers approximately 15 million square miles of the world's largest ocean -- the Pacific. The Polynesian islands are set in a rough triangle ranging from Hawaii at the northern apex to Easter Island in the southeast and New Zealand in the southwest. Seven of these island nations are represented at the Polynesian Cultural Center.